Open Book Blog Hop -11th November

This week’s topic is:

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

I have an avatar that author Yasmin Correa made for me back in 2016, and I also made my own just for this blog.  First of all I’ll share Yasmin’s avatar, which features a book I’m writing, plus one of the awards I won for ‘A House Without Windows’ in 2014.

I then went on to the ‘Make Your Own Avatar’ site, and tried to produce something that looks approximately like myself. This person eventually ended up looking nothing like me at all:

The last one is me after a night out on the lash:

 

What would other blog-hoppers’ avatars look like?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or just add your own:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Open Book Blog Hop – 28th October

This week the topic is:

 We’ve talked about writer’s block.  Have you ever had reader’s block?

I used to love reading as a child.  In school holidays Mum and Dad would go off to work, and I’d curl up on the sofa with a book and would often still be there at 2pm when Mum came home.  I read for the pleasure of it, and always had a stack of books to get through.  Books have always been a source of comfort to me.

However, when I began writing novels in 2013, all this changed.  First of all I preferred to write and not read, even though I knew that I should be reading much more than I was.  Secondly, when I read anything I began to find faults as I went along (it had never occurred to me to do this beforehand) and somehow the pleasure of reading was somewhat dulled.

Lately I have tried to increase my reading.  I joined the Goodreads’ 2019 challenge and so far this year have managed to read 14 books and now I am on a 15th.  I am really enjoying Mark Edwards’ new book ‘Here to Stay‘, because he writes the type of novels that I like to read – psychological thrillers.

So, no I haven’t really ever had reader’s block, but I try to make more time for reading now.  I still enjoy a good book!

Have any other blog-hoppers ever had reader’s block?  Click on the blue button to find out.  If you haven’t got readers’ block, you may like to check out my bargain paranormal novel ‘Partners in Time‘, which will be just £0.99 only on Halloween (with another bonus too – more to come).

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Open Book Blog Hop – 21st October

This week the topic is:

Do you try to be more original, or to deliver to readers what they want?

Ha ha, that’s a very good question; what actually do readers want?  If I knew that, I’d be selling millions of books! 

I usually wait until I’ve thought up a plot that’s a little bit different.  I try to be original, but in reality I expect every possible subject has already been covered ad nauseam.  I work on the assumption that somewhere out there are readers who might like my family-based dramas, be them humorous, paranormal, or romantic/suspense based.  I wait for the readers to come to me, rather than trying to write something they would like.

Am I doing it all arse-about-face?  Who knows?  Whatever the trending subject matter of the day is,  I’m either not in the loop or possibly it might be a genre I dislike.  It works best for me to write about what’s in my head and heart rather than worry about what I should be writing about.

What do other blog-hoppers think?  Click on the blue button below to find out.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Open Book Blog Hop – 14th October

Tags

writing

Hi all.  This is a scheduled post this week, as I’m currently away.  The topic today is:

What is your preferred method of writing? (by hand, on a computer, dictate it?)

I usually outline the plot in longhand in a notebook first, where I also add details about all the characters.  I find this helps if I become stuck with the story or can’t remember hair colour/eye colour etc, as I can then read my notes and know where to go next.

Once the plot has been put on paper, then it’s time to type each chapter up on the computer.  I have an 8.5 x 5.5 template that I type straight on to.  I used to type the story just in  Word, but now I use the template.  It saves on formatting bills.  I never used to be able to line up all the page numbers properly on Word, but with my magic template, anything is possible, lol!

Due to the kind of job I do, I can type faster than I can write in longhand, so the computer is my preferred method of writing every time.

What are other blog-hoppers’ preferred writing methods?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or simply add a comment or even your own blog post.

Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 7th October

This week’s topic is:

Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

Yes, of course I read all reviews I receive.  However, I am of the opinion that you cannot please all the readers all the time, and so I expect to receive some reviews that are not so favourable.  

If I receive a good review of four or five stars, first of all I’ll thank the reviewer.  Then I’ll add it to my website, send a tweet about it, and generally promote the review on my other social media sites.

If the review is one or two stars, I will leave it alone.  The worst thing to do is leave a comment or show online that I’m affected by it.  The reviewer may be a troll hoping I’ll comment so that they can immediately start a nasty conversation and bring in several of their noxious friends who gain some kind of perverse pleasure in trashing books.

However, sometimes there is some constructive criticism to take on board if the reviewer leaving a negative review is genuine.  This I will read and will sometimes act upon.

Three star reviews are okay, but in my opinion nothing to shout about, and so I don’t shout about them!

By the way, last week I received this rather nice review on Goodreads from Stephen Bentley for my paranormal short story ‘Finding David‘, so I thought I’d share it below:

‘This short story took me about two hours to read. It was delightful. If you have a longish wait it’s an ideal read for entertainment to while away the boredom of waiting.

Author Stevie Turner is a good storyteller. The yarn simply galloped along. In spite of (I guess) some of the subject matter or theme of the book comprising of the paranormal, it was written in an entirely credible way.

There is some excellent dialogue throughout the book. I also liked the character building – unusual in a short story but this one was just long enough for Stevie to put some ‘flesh and bones’ on the main characters.

Great ending too and one I did not see coming. Well recommended read!’

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Here’s a 5 star review I received last week for my short story ‘The Noise Effect’:

https://cadburypom.wordpress.com/2019/10/02/the-noise-effect-by-stevie-turner-5-0-stars/

The Noise Effect may be only a little over 60 pages, but it grabbed me from the very first page and I was mesmerized until I finished it 45 minutes later. I loved Eve and Leigh, and having suffered from some truly awful neighbors myself, I more than emphasized with them. But even if you’ve been spared a similar experience, I promise you’ll still connect with this couple. The suspense is teased out over the course of the story and there’s more than one twist that managed to catch me by surprise. Even toward the end, when I thought I had everything figured out, there was one more revelation. 

One of the things I love about being a blogger on WordPress (besides meeting all you lovely people), is that I’ve been fortunate enough to have stumbled across some truly gifted writers. I’m thrilled to be able to say that I’m adding Stevie to that list. I’ve always had a problem with novellas and short stories, in part because it’s so difficult to have time to form an emotional attachment with the characters. In my recent review of Joe Hill’s Full Throttle, I panned the short story, Throttle, he wrote with his father, Stephen King, mainly because I hated the characters. And most of you know what a fan I am of theirs, so it truly pained me. Stevie has proven that you can have wonderfully developed characters that you care about even in a short story or novella, and for me, well, what a treat. I HIGHLY recommend The Noise Effect to everyone who’s looking for a quick, suspense-filled read with relatable and sympathetic characters

How do other blog-hoppers deal with reviews?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or add your own blog to the hop:

Rules:1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 30th September

This week the topic is:

‘How do you move past writer’s block?’

That’s easy … I don’t start another novel until the inspiration strikes again!

Readers can always tell if you’re writing just for the sake of trying to write something.  What usually comes of this is shite.  Sometimes it will take me 6 months to come up with another idea, but until then I’m happy writing blogs, reading more and writing reviews.

I don’t feel the need to be writing all the time.  This is a hobby for me, and so it becomes less pleasurable if I’m trying to force words out because I feel guilty if I’m not writing.  What’s the point?  I’ve got my paid work to keep me occupied, and I like taking long walks to see if inspiration might strike, but hey, if it doesn’t then I’m not really that worried.

I now write one or two stories per year.  I have a 30,000 word novella that I’ve just completed, and I’ve written the first chapter of another novel that I’ll finish probably some time next year.  As I grow older the ideas take longer to arrive, but at least they still are arriving and I’m pleased about that!

How do other blog-hoppers cope with writer’s block?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or add your own blog or just a comment.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 23rd September

This week’s topic is:

“What do you owe the real people on  whom you base your characters?”

A few of my books are based on real people, although some characters are a mish-mash of several people’s quirky traits and stories they have told me.  Let’s start then…

I attended Pilates exercise classes for 18 months before I wrote ‘The Pilates Class‘. The class consisted of about 15 ladies and one man, Noel.  Noel always laid his mat in the front row, as he stated quite loudly that he didn’t want to be accused of ogling any of the women.  This gave me the idea for Neville, who makes sure his mat is placed at the back of the class so that he can feast his eyes on Roz in her tight lycra.  Thanks Noel, you gave me a great character!

‘Finding David’ is the result of many visits to clairvoyants over the years, where I learned that the body may die but the spirit lives on.  Messages I received from deceased relatives have proved to me beyond doubt that there is an afterlife.  Thanks to all my aunts and uncles who came through to me from the ‘other side’ to help me write my first paranormal novella.

One of the bands that my son Marc played guitar in was fronted by a larger-than-life South African singer, Gerhardus, whom we all came to love.  He came over to the UK on a student visa and eventually married an English girl.  We never thought the marriage would last, but he proved us wrong, as they have been together for at least 15 years.  They now live in Ireland and have a little girl.  Gerhardus became ‘Gerrie’, one of the main characters in my family drama ‘A Marriage of Convenience’.  Thanks Gerhardus, you absolutely rock!

All the slights I endured from my mother-in-law over about 30 years gave me the inspiration for ‘The Daughter-in-law Syndrome’.  I can’t really thank her, but much water has gone under the bridge and she is now quite elderly.  We currently get on reasonably well after a fashion.

When we lived in South London back in 1986, we had noisy neighbours who kept us awake night after night.  Sam, resourceful as ever, constructed an electrical device that sat on the party wall and interfered with their stereo, which I described in ‘The Noise Effect’.  Thanks to my husband for the sudden and very welcome silence from next door.

My old classmates of 1974 and my sons’ teenage friends around 1999/2000 gave me quite a bit of inspiration when it came to creating the young people who journeyed to the Isle of Wight with Alistair Veale and Carly Jessop.  Thanks to them all – they’ll never know they’ve been included in ‘Revenge’!

These are just a few of the people I am grateful to for inspiration.  If you’d like to read other blog hoppers’ on the same subject, please click on the blue button below:

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 9th September

The topic this week is:

What are the best two or three books you’ve read this year?

I took part in the Goodreads’ reading challenge this year and initially tapped in the number 12, as I thought I wouldn’t read more than 12 books this year.  I’m now ready to choose my 14th book to take on holiday, so I’m pleased that I’ve managed to complete the challenge.  You can see all the books I read if you click on the link below:

https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/16409907

I prefer to read psychological thrillers or autobiographies/ biographies and other non-fiction.  The 3 books I’ve particularly enjoyed are below, and I’ve added my reviews too (5 stars for all):

 

Rejection is not new, as John Keats, had he lived today, could verify. Stung by harsh criticism of his work during his short lifetime of only 25 years, the following words (not even his name) are etched on his tombstone in Rome’s Protestant cemetery: ‘This grave contains all that was mortal of a young English poet, who on his deathbed in the bitterness of his heart at the malicious power of his enemies, desired these words to be engraven on his tombstone: Here lies one whose name was writ in water. February 24th 1821.’ I only discovered this whilst reading Virginia Woolf’s ‘A Room of One’s Own’, which are essays containing the speeches she gave to students at Girton College, Cambridge in the 1920s. The main subject matter of these essays is Women and Fiction, but as you can see she does deviate somewhat… Virginia Woolf stated that for a woman to be able to write fiction, she must have a room of her own and £500 per year, which of course was a lot of money in her time. Her aunt had left her this selfsame legacy and she had a room of her own, but she bewailed the fate of females from a lesser social class. These women were poor and controlled by men, reduced to being mere servants and childminders and had no time whatsoever to themselves and no chance of ever writing a poem, let alone a novel. The middle classes fared rather better, although Jane Austen had no room of her own and had to hide the manuscript of Pride and Prejudice under a blotter for fear of being ridiculed. Charlotte Bronte complained of having to mend stockings when she wanted to travel all over the world. Female authors such as these met much criticism in their lifetimes and the Bronte sisters even had to publish their work using male pseudonyms to have their writing taken seriously. Noblewomen had the time and money to write poetry, but even Lady Winchilsea was not happy writing poetry, controlled by men stopping her from doing what she wanted to do, and knowing she would be laughed at and satirised as a ‘blue-stocking’ if her poetry came to light. Noblewomen were expected just to write letters, not novels. The essays are quite fascinating, and the book, a classic, was actually free on Amazon. The lives of women have improved now to the extent where many female authors do have their writing taken seriously, but still many are passed off as lightweight for writing about what they know… family sagas, relationships and romance. I would agree with Ms Woolf that women do need a good income and a space for them to write in peace, ideally without domestic interruptions. Wordsworth was notorious for entering his house by the back door to avoid ‘domestic issues’. Quite often these days women, like myself, earn an income by working and writing novels in their spare time. However, women today will write whatever their circumstances if the urge takes them. Yes, many might be rejected by agents and publishers, but at least they have the strength of mind to carry on regardless. Did a room of her own and an income of £500 per year make Virginia Woolf happy? No it didn’t; she drowned herself in 1941 after suffering another bout of mental illness. However, she left a wonderful body of work that will be read for decades to come. Do have a read of her Girton essays if you have some peace in a room of your own! A recommended 5 star read.

 

 

They say that every now and then it’s a good idea to get out of your comfort zone and do something you’ve never done before. Dawne Archer certainly did this, when she and an old school friend decided to sign up for a trek across the Sahara Desert to raise funds for Thrombosis UK. Dawne has Factor V Leiden, which means she is more susceptible to blood clots/ deep vein thrombosis, having inherited the gene from both parents (her father died from a blood clot to the lung). She had already suffered a life-threatening thrombosis in her twenties, but now in her fifties she also has other health issues that made her wonder whether in reality she would be able to complete the trek. With the health problems Dawne had at the time, I would never have even contemplated such an arduous task, but this lady had true grit and a grim determination not to let down her sponsors (all proceeds of the book’s sale go to Thrombosis UK). She and her friend set off with a support team and other more experienced trekkers to discover just what it’s like to walk across the shifting sands of the Sahara Desert in broiling heat. Whether or not she completed the trek you will have to find out for yourself, but the writing is such that you can imagine yourself actually there in amongst the heat, sand, scorpions, blisters, and the endless desert vista stretching for mile after sandy mile. A recommended 5 star read. Kudos to Ms Archer for having the guts to do something as strenuous as this!

 

I always enjoy Jim’s farming stories, as he has a way of telling a tale that is entertaining but informative at the same time. I’ve learned a lot about sheep while reading this book, and always wondered how on earth a sheepdog learns to do what it does – but I know now that a new dog will learn from an old one. There were a few chuckles too, particularly at how Jim dealt with unwanted salespeople. There were a couple of shocks regarding how the price of cattle has decreased over the years, and also sadly how the number of UK dairy farms has dropped from 196,000 in 1950 to about 10,000 now. Jim has spent his whole life farming and has acquired a wealth of knowledge, some of which he shares in this delightful book.

 

What have other blog-hoppers been reading?  Click on the blue button below to find out, or just add a comment.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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Click here to enter

Open Book Blog Hop – 2nd September

This week’s topic is:

Does a big ego help or hurt writers?

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Every so often I am followed by other writers on Twitter (I’m not on Facebook), and when I check them out I am immediately suspicious of the ones that boast “Amazon best-selling author”.

Quite a few times I have checked out the Amazon rankings of these authors’ books, and guess what… they are not bestsellers!  There are no orange badges proclaiming their success, and all I can deduce from their claims are that perhaps once upon a time their book, especially if the genre is uncommon,  might have hit a favourable ranking for a day or two.

I am quite world-weary to egotistical best-selling author comments.  What’s the point of claiming you have top rankings when you do not?  These authors with their big egos are doing nothing to enhance their writing careers, and are making themselves look ridiculous.  Let’s face it, how many self-published authors get to keep that little orange badge for weeks on end?  Not many, I’ll wager.

Sure, we can boast about a great review we’ve had or a competition win, but let there be physical proof of it.  It’s no use bragging about something that readers cannot see with their own eyes.  Lies can only hurt writers’ careers in the long run.

What do other blog-hoppers think?  Click on the link below to find out, or just add a comment.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

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Open Book Blog Hop – 26th August

This week’s topic is:

Why would you, as an author/reader, abandon (stop reading) someone else’s book?

Yes, I have abandoned books in the past.  I have an ‘Abandoned‘ shelf on Goodreads, but some authors objected to me adding their books and asked me to remove them.  The 5 books I have on there at the moment I tried to read so long ago that I’ve forgotten why I stopped reading them.  However, I can tell you what the probable reasons were, which I’ll list below (in no particular order).

1. Poor spelling / grammar:  This tells me the author hasn’t made much effort to produce a reasonable story.
2. A book that’s written in too young a style:  This is fine for children, but not for me.
3. Boring:  Sorry, but if I start skipping over pages because it’s going nowhere, then I’ll probably end up abandoning it.
4. It’s in a genre I can’t get on with:  This includes Fantasy (the worst one for me unfortunately), cosy mysteries, Sci-fi, horror and erotica.
5. It’s too long:  I prefer shorter novels up to about 70 – 80,000 words.
6. Too many characters:  I’m an old lady now and get confused!
7. Characters with names that nobody’s ever heard of:  I’ll look at the blurb, and if the names are outlandish, then my heart sinks…
8. A picture with a half naked unshaven man on the cover, or a cover with a woman pouting and wearing very skimpy clothing.
9. Lots of plot holes:  Again, the author hasn’t made much effort to fill them in.
10. Too many conversations in local dialect:  Can’t understand it if I’m not local to that area.

Do you abandon books?  Why?  Click on the blue button below to take part in this week’s hop, or just leave a comment.

Rules:

1. Link your blog to this hop.
2. Notify your following that you are participating in this blog hop.
3. Promise to visit/leave a comment on all participants’ blogs.
4. Tweet/or share each person’s blog post. Use #OpenBook when tweeting.
5. Put a banner on your blog that you are participating.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter