Talking Horses by Nick Garlick

I'd like to stay with the recent Halloween posts and put in a word for a series that - as far as I know - has only been published in the USA. But with an e-reader....

The Del Toro family patrol a region of Colorado’s Sangre de Cristo mountains, preventing supernatural creatures from invading the realm of humans. And there's enough fighting to satisfy any action-loving young teen (girl OR boy). But what makes the books so special is that the family is aided in their centuries-old struggle by Andalusian war horses. Who can talk.

This might sound too Disney-cute for words. It isn’t. Turk is cocky and aggressive. Izzy won’t be ignored just because she’s a ‘girl’. And El Cid possesses a gravitas that makes him especially memorable. (His quizzical ‘Really?’ when asked to be extra careful before a fight is a delight.) These horses are real characters and demand to be treated as such.

Then there’s the romance - in the first book - between our 12-year-old hero Matt and Perry, a girl who’s visiting the area. I usually skip these sections because they so often fall back on cliché – hot babe, cool dude.  Not here. There’s no babe- or dude-ness to either of them. Perry is clever and curious. Matt worries about making the right impression. There’s a delicacy in these chapters as the relationship progresses that’s both charming and totally captivating.

The follow-ups broaden the story and bring in new characters - a witch riding a motor bike is a favourite of mine - but at the heart of them all are the horses: bickering, cracking jokes, advising our teenage protagonist. They're totally original and a genuine source of pleasure. 

I'm already looking forward to the fourth in the series.

In Search of Ghosts by Claire Fayers

With Halloween almost upon us, it seems a good time to talk about ghosts.

As a ghost hunter, I'm a complete unbeliever, and a novice. I tend towards comedy rather than scares and I've only written one book that may qualify for Halloween (Mirror Magic which its spooky mist and skeletons). Yet, somehow I find myself researching for a book on Welsh giants, goblins and ghosts.

I must admit, the research has been fun. I spent a memorable evening with the Llangynidr Network Group, learning about the Llangynidr ghost, which was seen by the Reverend Elwyn Thomas on his way to his lodgings after a long day of preaching.

Almost level with my own face I saw that of an old man, over every feature of which the putty coloured skin was drawn tightly, except the forehead which was lined with deep wrinkles. The lips were extremely thin and appeared bloodless. The toothless mouth stood half open. The cheeks were hollow and sunken like those of a corpse, and the eyes, which seemed far back in the middle of the head, were unnaturally luminous and piercing. The terrible object was wrapped in two bands of old yellow calico, one of which was drawn under the chin and over the cheeks and tied at the top of his head. The other was drawn around the top of the wrinkled forehead and fastened at the back of the head. So deep and indelible impression it made on my mind that, were I an artist, I could paint that face today, and reproduce the original (excepting, perhaps, the luminous eyes) as accurately as if it were photographed.

The ghost pursued the reverend all the way to the crossroads into the village, where it stopped and then retreated over the wall of the churchyard. It has never been seen again but people will still enthusiastically retell the story.

The canal path to Llangynidr - no ghosts here

  
My second research trip was to a ghost tour at Cardiff Castle. Most of the stories had no basis in history when I checked them later, and many of them couldn’t be verified at all. (‘Last week, a tour group saw that rocking chair move.’) But the whole evening was a fantastic exercise in building atmosphere. We were told to turn our torches on then off again so our eyes never adjusted to the dark. We crowded into a room and the guide began his stories, flashing his torch around the rom to create shadows as he spoke.

At the end of the evening, one woman thought she saw something and jumped, which caused another woman to give a bloodcurdling scream, which made everyone jump and caused another lady to burst into tears. We looked for the ghost but it had fled, if it had ever been there. But I’m sure the incident will have made a great story for the next tour group. As we were leaving, the first lady was saying she must have seen something because she wouldn’t have jumped for no reason. It’s interesting how quick we can be to convince ourselves of these things.

Cardiff Castle - ghosts? Probably not

 Which brings me to my final trip, to Llancaiach Fawr manor. It’s well known for being haunted, but I was there to look at the witch marks – burn marks that people used to make around the house to ward off evil.

 

Witch marks

It was fascinating, and very creepy. It was also January and the house was freezing. We stood shivering, looking at the mumified items that had been found buried inside the walls, and then we climbed the steps to the attic bedroom where there were hundreds of witch marks around the door, on every rafter. Each one would have taken hours to create. This was the steward’s bedroom. I imagined him lying in bed, cold, and so terrified of evil spirits that he spent every spare moment burning protective marks around his bed.

If I had to pick one of these three places to be haunted, I'd go with Llancaich Fawr. It has the atmosphere, the long history of superstition and it was used as a courtroom for some witch trials. But no, I still don’t believe in ghosts. I do however believe in the power of the human brain to conjure up terrifying images and stories. Happy Halloween!

Mummified shoes found inside wall at Llancaiach Fawr

Claire Fayers 

www.clairefayers.com

A Boy From Baghdad, by Miriam Halahmy - reviewed by Sue Purkiss

 

It's very important to twelve year-old Salman Shasha that he is what it says in the title - a boy from Baghdad. But in 1951 it's not easy to be a boy from Baghdad - especially if you're Jewish: because the Iraqui government has given the Jews of Iraq a year to get out of the country. They will not be allowed to take anything with them apart from one suitacase, and they will not be allowed to take any money with them. Up until now, Salman's family has had a comfortable life in a pleasant house. His mother is a marvellous cook - there are luscious descriptions of family meals, and they want for nothing. Salman's only problem is that he oves swimming, but he knows his father would not approve of his ambition to be an olympic swimmer, so he has to train in secret - he swims as often as he can in the River Tigris, with his cousin Latif keeping time for him.

He knows about the government edict. The fledgeling state of Israel has agrred to take in the Iraqui Jews, and finally, the family has a place on a plane which will take them there. They are told that it will be a land of milk and honey, with jobs, houses, and prospects for all. Salman doesn't care about any of this: he loves Baghdad, it's his home and he wants to stay there.

But go they must. And when they arrive, they find that their new home is a tented camp, and there is little prospect of work for Salman's father. Conditions are harsh, there is little food, and Salman's mother, in despair, sinks into depression and takes to her bed. As his father looks for work in the nearby city, it's up to Salman - and Latif - to find food for the younger children.

And that's not all. It turns out that prejudice exists here too. The Ashkenazi (European) Jews had arrived first, and they look down on the Jews like Salman, who are from Arab countries. Salman is told he must only speak Hebrew, and he must change his name to a Hebrew one - Shimon.

At first he resists, determined to hold on to his identity. He still holds on to his dreams of becoming a swimmer - but how is that ever going to happen now?

But gradually, Salman and his family find friends who help them: friends who come from all the different groups now living in Israel, including Ashkenazis and Arabs. They find hope again, and eventually - spoiler alert - Salman finds a way to get his swimming back on track. But really, the lessons Salman learns about how to live are the important ones.

Apologies if I've related too much about the story of the book (which is based on Miriam's husband's family): the book only arrived yesterday, and I sat down and read it in one go, and I'm rather full of it.

But also, more importantly, it has a very clear relevance to the terrible things that are happening at the moment. I have only a fairly hazy idea of how Israel came to be. This book isn't an explainer of that (if you want a brief, but very clear explanation of that, try Rory Stewart on The Rest Is Politics podcast). But what it does do, very clearly and vividly, is take us into a small corner of that time: and by allowing us to enter the lives of this family, it enables us to see just how it was for the people living through that time - how complex were their circumstances, how difficult the decisions they had to make. (And indeed, that sometimes, there are no choices to be made: the Shasha fmily had no choice about whether or not to leave Iraq.) 

It's a very, very good book, and I strongly recommend it.

A Sudden Storm, written by Bali Rai, illustrated by David Shepherd, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart

This is an urgent short story, told in the first person by Arjan on his sixteenth birthday; the day he is murdered.

Bali Rai, a Sikh himself, takes a very relatable Sikh teenage boy of Punjabi heritage going out for a very ordinary cinema and Nando’s evening with his ordinary group of racially mixed friends. So normal … and yet the evening suddenly turns so utterly, horrifically, abnormal. 

The relevance of Arjan’s faith is that he wears an outward symbol of that faith; a turban. In the story, Arjan explains the importance of turban wearing to him and his family, what his hair is like under it, and why he is proud to wear it. And yet, to a racist thug, it is, literally a ‘red rag’ that enrages. The thug’s ignorance is reflected in his naming Arjan ‘Taliban’. What finally enrages the thug into physical, rather than just verbal, violence is when he sees Arjan, ‘chatting up a white girl, and that ain’t right.’ 

What follows is a tense chase as Arjan is hunted down, and, utterly shockingly, killed. 

All too believably depicted through teenage chat and behaviour and reactions. Young readers will respond to the honesty of this story. Its short sharp effect will stay with them for a long time. The text is complimented with graphic novel type illustrations by David Shephard, suiting the readership and characters as they bring the story to visual life. This book should be in every secondary school library.

In an Author’s Note at the end of this short book, Bali Rai explains how the story came to him, and what he hopes it will prompt readers to consider. Where does prejudice come from, and where can it lead? What is just banter, and what is dangerous? This is going to be an important book for many young people who recognise themselves, and those they know, in the characters and situations depicted. 

This book is published by Barrington Stoke, consulting young people and designing the book to be accessible to those with dyslexia. 

Pupil review of GREAT MINDS: 2500 Years of Thinkers and Philosophy

Today's post is a book review by a pupil at Kingsland Primary School in Scotland, as part of the Blog Tour for GREAT MINDS, written by Joan Lennon and Joan Haig, and illustrated by André Ducci.

Templar Books, Bonnier Books, 2023

This fantastic book, GREAT MINDS, is full of heaps of motivating and factual stories of different inspiring people from around the world. One of the things that we thought was best about this book was the way that it is very inclusive to all cultures and religions of people all with different beliefs and philosophies.We love the way it splits the stories and ideas into different sections, it is a clever and uniform way to lay out the information.

💛💛💛💛💛

Thanks to Mrs. Grainne Smith and her bookworms!

Rethinking The Hag - by Lu Hersey

 When you think of the word 'hag', what image does it conjure in your mind? The wicked, nightmare crone of fairy tales, probably. But in reality, throughout most of history, by my age I'd be classified as a hag. It's a word defined by most dictionaries as 'an ugly, old and unpleasant woman'. Only a reasonably supportive bra and good modern dentistry saves me (and even then, I probably fit the bill). 

During the notorious witch trials, a high proportion of the women strangled and burnt at the stake as witches were simply old, post-menopausal women. Toothless and wrinkly, no longer of any interest to men, unable to easily support themselves financially, and often with only a cat for company. Ostracised by society, they were more likely to voice their opinions freely (the modern version would be giving fewer fucks). Frankly, I fit at least two of those categories. I'd have been strangled and burnt, for sure.

Even today, old women garner very little respect in society. No matter what knowledge or wisdom they've gained from being around for so long, they don't look great, and they're largely ignored. It's still OK to treat them with contempt. I recently read former gynaecologist Adam Kay's autobiography, This is Going to Hurt - in which he devotes at least half a chapter to his intense dislike of doing operations on older women, in detail. No sensitivity reader needed, apparently. Old women, like people with ginger hair, are still apparently fair game for society's derision and snide remarks.

Of course old men don't look great either, but far fewer were burnt as witches simply because they were cantankerous, old and ugly. No one derides them for having age related prostate problems or wrinkly old bollocks. And they can still garner respect for some reason, however nasty they might be. Look at Rupert Murdoch. 

Anyway, to get to the point - isn't it time we change society's attitude to old women? We need to portray a society where old women aren't all blood-thirsty, embittered old hags who want to cook children and render their fat down to make mysterious potions. (Although I wouldn't want to entirely exclude this kind of activity - after all, it is coming up to halloween.) But we need positive portrayals in children's stories, alongside the evil hag. Include old women simply as people who've been around a long time and have seen a great deal - who might even be able to tell you something life changing. A nugget of invaluable information that transforms your future. Whatever. I try to include at least one in every book I write.

And that's the end of my rant for today. Now pass my broomstick, I'm going out.

Lu Hersey

https://www.patreon.com/Writingthemagic

twitter: https://twitter.com/LuWrites

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/luwrites.bsky.social

Blogging Bye-Byes by Tracy Darnton

Life events are intervening so I’m taking a break from blogging here on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure. 

I’ve been looking back at the blogs I’ve written in the last few years – this is blog 65. Sixty-five! Excuse me for being a touch introspective and self-indulgent in reviewing them and sharing my favourite three.

Some months you’re brimming with something you want to say about writing and others you feel like you have nothing to say of any value to anybody. I’m a private person and share very little of my family life on social media so I was surprised that the three I picked were probably the most personal, the most revealing of me.

On the writing front, I’ve shared the unexpected bonuses of being a picture book writer and the similarities with writing 70,000 word thrillers. And as an unashamed book nerd, I shared my joy at seeing one of my thrillers printed. 

I’m glad that people have found my blogs on the craft of writing useful whether it’s Talking Dialogue The Edit Letter, Notes from an Editing Writer, Endings, or observations on finishing another thriller, and my specialist topic came up a lot - Procrastination.

My love of libraries and bookshops has often featured. And a magical trip to the book town Fjaerland in Norway as well as Folly Farm and festivals from YALC to Harrogate.

I've usually provided some sort of quiz or game recommendation for Christmas and a Dear Santa booklist as well as the inevitable New Years' writing resolutions – very few of them met.

Which are my favourite blogs? Drum roll, my top three in reverse order:

At 3 - Family memes – How Bernard, Fix-It Duck infiltrated our family lexicon.

The runner up - One small step – a cosmic writers residency

And finally in first place:

Why can’t I be more like Jeffrey and Dan? An author in search of a writing routine.

If I’m brave enough I shall mention it to Dan Brown in the Green Room at Iceland Noir next month. Ha! Of course I won’t. Maybe without the blog, procrastination will become a thing of the past and my writing routine will fall into place. Maybe. Whatever, it's been an Awfully Big Blog Adventure. 

Thank you for reading them. 

Tracy x

 

 

Tracy Darnton is the author of YA thrillers The Truth About Lies, The Rules and Ready or Not, and the picture book My Brother is an Avocado, AND 65 blogs. You can follow her on Twitter or Instagram @TracyDarnton

On sandcastles and synopses - Rowena House

I love iteration, its back-and-forth, revisiting and refining ideas. It is the antidote to linear, post-fact rationalisation and a challenge to dogma, harnessing the fluid relationships between that and this, there and here, then and now.

Hilary Mantel’s posthumous A Memoir of My Former Self apparently traces some of the iterations in her thoughts, according to The Guardian’s review this weekend. * 

"We repeatedly see Mantel testing and circling ideas, developing her thoughts over time," says reviewer John Self,

I'd love her to have narrated the audiobook so we can hear her wry intelligence again.

Revisiting these ABBA posts has become a conscious part of my creative process as I refine the plot plan for the 17th century witch trial work-in-progress. From the rather scary place it's at – starting the first draft of Act II – I can see different uses for some of the plotting devices I’ve experimented with before.

For instance, the guru-inspired template synopses I generated last year (and blogged about here over several months) have now taken on new roles. At the outset, they were story development devices. ‘What ifs.’ With hindsight, the output of that process – distilled into roughly four discrete synopses for the whole manuscript – look more like glimpses into alternative futures, possibilities of the shape of things to come.

This shift in viewpoint – from ‘that then’ to ‘this now’ – put me in mind of a writing axiom that’s always sounded good in theory but which I’ve never been able to put into practice.

It is the notion that a first draft is a sand pit into which you pour your ideas, and only afterwards shape the sand into the castles of your story. It is a variation on ‘get it writ, then get it right’ (which, like iteration, I remember talking about here before).

The template outlines can, perhaps, be seen as half-way houses. Or half-way castles. Buckets filled with similar characters and events, each producing a different shaped story. Historical Crime is one shape, Literary Thriller another, and so forth.

Each synopsis poses a question: which genre, if any, best fits the characters and events of this tale, and is that type of story one I genuinely want to devote the time and energy needed to write it?

In the spontaneous moment when fingers hit keys, I don't think big questions like genre should matter. If they did, I doubt anything would get written at all. But outside that moment, after a break, wondering where the story got to and where it’s going next, a sand castle in a bucket turns out to be helpful.

You can pick it up and see what you like. What’s missing. What would be fun to do with it now. What doesn’t make sense any more.

For future reference – if there is ever going to be another story – template outlines have definitely earned their place in my writing tool kit.

@HouseRowena on X/Twitter

Rowena House Author on Facebook

*I'll try to remember to put a link into the comments once I've found it! It was published on Saturday, 14 October 2023.

Books for 13 year-olds by Lynne Benton

 This week my youngest granddaughter turned thirteen.  I don't see her very often (they live a long way away) so I wasn't sure what to buy her, so I asked my son, her dad.  "She's got a list!" he said, and sent it to me.

I was delighted to discover that her list consisted entirely of books!  Given that we're often told that children/teenagers don't read any more, this was very gratifying to me - though I suppose her love of books may be in part down to her genes!  (I remember asking her a couple of years ago what was on her Christmas list, and after a moment's thought she said, "Books and earrings."  "Hmm," I said.  "Much the same as my list, then!")

Anyway, I thought I'd reproduce here the books on her 13 year-old's list.  Presumably most/all of these had been recommended by various friends, so they may or may not be representative of what the average 13 year-old would enjoy, but could be a useful guide for anyone planning to write or buy books for that age group.  I have to admit I've never read any of them, though I do like the idea of the first on the list, "The Lost Bookshop" and have downloaded a digital version on my Kindle.

1  The Lost Bookshop   by  Evie Woods

‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

2  Two Can Keep A Secret   by  Karen M Mc Manus

The follow up YA thriller from the author of the international bestseller One of Us is Lying.

A perfect town is hiding secrets. Secrets that somebody would kill to keep hidden.

Ellery's never been to Echo Ridge, but she's heard all about it.

It's where her aunt went missing at age sixteen, never to return. Where a Homecoming Queen's murder five years ago made national news.

And now she has to live there with her estranged grandmother, after her mother lands in rehab.

Malcolm grew up in the shadow of the Homecoming Queen's death.

His older brother was the prime suspect and left Echo Ridge in disgrace.

But now he's back- just as mysterious threats appear around town, hinting that a killer will strike again.

Then another girl disappears.

As Ellery and Malcolm race to unravel what happened, they realise every secret has layers in Echo Ridge.

'Tightly plotted and brilliantly written, with sharp, believable characters, this whodunit is utterly irresistible' – HEAT

3  If He Had Been With Me   by   Laura Nowlin

An achingly authentic and raw portrait of love, regret, and the life-altering impact of the relationships we hold closest to us, this YA romance bestseller is perfect for fans of Colleen Hoover, Jenny Han, and You've Reached Sam.

If he had been with me, everything would have been different...

Autumn and Finn used to be inseparable. But then something changed. Or they changed. Now, they do their best to ignore each other.

Autumn has her boyfriend Jamie, and her close-knit group of friends. And Finn has become that boy at school, the one everyone wants to be around.

That still doesn't stop the way Autumn feels every time she and Finn cross paths, and the growing, nagging thought that maybe things could have been different. Maybe they should be together.

But come August, things will change forever. And as time passes, Autumn will be forced to confront how else life might have been different if they had never parted ways...

4  Imagine Me   by  Tahereh Mafi

The book that all SHATTER ME fans have been waiting for is finally here. The finale of Tahereh Mafi's New York Times bestselling YA fantasy series perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen, Stranger Things and Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows

Juliette Ferrars. Ella Sommers. Which is the truth and which is the lie?

Now that Ella knows who Juliette is and what she was created for, things have only become more complicated. As she struggles to understand the past that haunts her and looks to a future more uncertain than ever, the lines between right and wrong – between Ella and Juliette – blur. And with old enemies looming, her destiny may not be her own to control.
The day of reckoning for the Reestablishment is coming. But will the choice of which side to fight on be hers?

Tahereh Mafi is the New York Times bestselling author of the Shatter Me series which has been published in over 30 languages around the world. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California, with her husband, Ransom Riggs, fellow bestselling author of Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, and their young daughter. She can usually be found overcaffeinated and stuck in a book. Follow her on Instagram and Twitter @TaherehMafi

I hope my granddaughter will enjoy all these - a couple of them I recognise from having previously bought her the earlier book/s in the series, so they're evidently still popular.  And I hope some of you may find this selection of interest too.

Website: lynnebenton.com

Latest book:  Billy and the Queen