'Broken Ground', by Lu Hersey: reviewed by Sue Purkiss

Disclaimer: Lu Hersey is a friend, but that's not why I'm reviewing her book. It's because it's really, really good.

There's so much going on in Broken Ground that it's a bit difficult to know where to start. Arlo, the narrator and main character, is a teenage boy who lives with his mother. They used to live on a farm, but lost it, as a result of which Arlo's father, in despair, killed himself. The farm is now owned by a very unpleasant character called Phelps, who wants to get Arlo and his mother out of the cottage they are renting so he can turn it into a holiday let. Phelps also has plans for the farm land; he is hoping to find shale gas underneath it, and has hired a company to do some test drilling.

More elements: there is a strangely magical grove nearby, associated with which is a mysterious, otherworldly girl, who clearly wants something from Arlo. Arlo and his friend Clay make crop circles - but at the beginning of the book, they are astonished when one appears in a field where they had intended to make one - but this one is spectacularly complex and beautiful, far better than anything they could create. Arlo has feelings for another friend, Jaz; and he suffers from seizures. 

But what's very clever about this book is that it avoids the obvious. With all that's happened to Arlo, he could be bitter and angry - but he isn't. He's kind and thoughtful and caring. Clay is a more down-to-earth character, but he is loyal and funny, and a good friend to Arlo and Jaz. Arlo's mum is a kind of white witch; she's not over-protective of Arlo, though she'd have every reason to be. The police are on Arlo's side, not on Phelps's. 

There is a parallel world, rather like there is in some of Alan Garner's books: it's not necessarily a kind world - there is a strong element of darkness running through it. It harks back to a much earlier time, when nature was in the ascendant, not man: the book isn't remotely preachy, but the environmental theme very much underpins it.

And Lu Hersey can most definitely tell a story. This is not a book you'll want to put down.

Sue Purkiss's most recent book is Jack Fortune and the Search for the Hidden Valley, and it's about plant hunters. She reviews books (mostly, but not entirely, adult ones) at A Fool On A Hill.

What happens when you press the panic button - by Lu Hersey

 A problem (admittedly a luxury one) came up this week because I have a book coming out.  On 21 June, to be precise. 

Not having had a book out in a while, I swanned about, thinking I had plenty of time to get all my book promotion ducks in a row. (Which simply meant arranging a couple of events where I could blow my own trumpet - invite a load of people to a launch and a book signing maybe, and hope a few of them might show up.) Easy enough, you'd think.

But sometimes things don't work out smoothly, the way you imagined. Stuff gets in the way.  And you start to panic.

Firstly, a holiday. Yes, I know. Another luxury problem. But not having had one for a couple of years, thanks to the pandemic, I hadn't remembered the dates. So a holiday in Cornwall, booked long ago, happened to coincide with the week immediately before the book launch. 

Also, I'd somehow forgotten about the Glastonbury festival - again because there hasn't been one for the last couple of years. I live in Glastonbury. The festival means a couple of weeks a year when trying to get in and out of town is a pigging nightmare. Just when my event books were due to arrive.  At my house. While I was in Cornwall.

Meanwhile, my 95 year old father needed a cataract operation, which had been postponed from January and rescheduled, so I abandoned everything to look after him for a few days. Which would have been fine, except that immediately after his op, he tripped over a kerb, fell flat on the pavement, and managed to pump out more than enough blood for a slasher horror movie over Plymouth city centre. Obviously I ended up looking after him for a few days more. And still not sorting the problem. 

I was starting to lose sleep. After a few nights of waking at 5am, wondering if it was too early or too late for a cup of tea, I thought maybe taking up smoking might help. 

Throughout this time, social media and all the junk emails I get from writing organisations, the bookseller etc., were busy shouting about the millions of books being published right now. Book awards, book launches - books, books and more books. 

Light dawned. 

What on earth I was worrying about? There are more new books out every week than anyone could possibly read in a blooming lifetime. So who would give a flying squirrel about mine? I hadn't even told anyone about the launch or the book signing, because I hadn't had time. In fact I hadn't said much about the book at all. So despite thinking the bookshop would probably never speak to me again....

I cancelled.  

I held my breath for a second in case the world exploded. Of course it didn't. What actually happened was the bookshop simply offered sympathy and asked if I wanted to reschedule. Because basically all bookshop people, librarians and writers are the best type of human beings.

However, there's one event I haven't cancelled. I'd actually arranged it at a sensible time, and organised it before anything else. I'm doing a book signing at the Henge Shop in Avebury on July 30th, the Saturday immediately before Lughnasadh or Lammas. It's the area where the book is set - and around the right date.  I'll be there all day, so if you happen to fancy a visit to Avebury and Silbury Hill, do come and say hello. It's an inspirational landscape, regardless of whether you want to buy a book or not.

And despite blowing out the book launch, Broken Ground is out 21 June, available to order from the publisher, via a bookshop or library, or even Amazon. It has a really nice cover, thanks to Rhi Wynter, and hopefully it's an exciting read, if a little dark. After all, Lughnasadh is grain harvest time, and the story is loosely based on the John Barleycorn myth - and we all know what fate held in store for him...

So that's what happened when I pressed the panic button. I didn't need to take up smoking. The world didn't end. And like I said, no one but me gave a flying squirrel anyway...

Lu Hersey

The difficulties of working with a goddess - by Lu Hersey

 Next month I have a new book coming out. 

So what, you might be thinking - big yawn, show us your cover and shut up about it. Writers have new books out all the time.

But of course I want to tell you about the book as well as showing you the cover. I mean, it's taken over seven years and more edits than you've had hot dinners to get here, and that takes a bit of explaining. 

One of my biggest difficulties was having a land goddess appear in the story, especially as she kept taking over. After all, Andraste is the goddess Boudicca invoked before battling the Romans, so she's really not to be messed with...and she was determined I got the story right before it was published.

Andraste, goddess and guardian of the land (image by Rhi Wynter, detail taken from the back cover)

But my (possibly more realistic) problems started when my publisher back in 2015 turned the idea for the book down, AND I KEPT WRITING IT ANYWAY. Yes, big mistake, but hindsight is a wonderful thing. My advice to my past self (and any other writer caught in this scenario) would be, even if you don't agree with your publisher and you think they're totally wrong about the commercial value of your work of genius, it's best to simply write something new they might want instead.

To be fair, they didn't realise that by the time the first section was presented to them, I'd written a whole draft already. The goddess was awake and ready for battle. 

Anyway, their feedback on the part they read was:

1. My main protagonist was a boy (he still is. He's called Arlo). They preferred female protagonists because they sell more books - and apparently boys don't read.

2. No one knows what a crop circle is and girls don't read about aliens (if they'd read past the first section, they'd have discovered there weren't - and still aren't - any aliens. But doubt they'd have liked the land goddess any better, tbh)

3. Teens aren't interested in ecological issues. (This predated Greta Thunberg, obvs)

I now fully acknowledge that sales and marketing have a valuable job to do, which is making sure what's published actually sells and makes the publisher a profit. OF COURSE I should have let go of the book and written something else immediately. But did I listen? Did I buffalo. 

I did try. After a while, I wrote new books and put Broken Ground on the back burner. In fact there are currently two of my books still going through the glacial submission process somewhere. But throughout all this, I still couldn't let the idea behind Broken Ground go. I kept coming back to it, again and again.

And now, zillions of edits and much generous feedback from writer friends later, Broken Ground finally gets to see the light of day next month - thanks to wonderful Debbie McGowan at Beaten Track publishers.  

Also, thanks to amazing designer Rhi Wynter, it has a stunning cover....

(AT LAST, you're thinking - FINALLY she's got to the cover reveal!)

That's it really. I'll be promoting Broken Ground a lot over the next couple of months, so you'll be tired of hearing about it soon enough. But if you like the idea of a book filled with scary magic, crop circles, blood sacrifice and a land goddess, it'll make me a very happy writer. 

(And even happier if you want to read it, obviously 💚).

Lu Hersey