Anna Jones Buttimore

A few days ago I re-read a book I had first picked up as a fourteen-year-old and which had completely stunned me at the time. If anything it was more powerful almost thirty years later and I am still reeling from it. We all have books we enjoy and that have meant a lot to us over the years, but I suspect we have just three or four which have had a great impact on us or changed our lives and outlook. Restricting myself to fiction, I'm going to tell you about the books which mean the most to me. The Chrysalids  by John Wyndham is that book my sister bought home from Southend High School for girls in 1982 and which evidently never went back. Although you have to pick it up from the clues because it doesn't state it outright, it's set in a dystopian future of post-nuclear winter and tells the story of a boy, David Strorm, who is different in a world which doesn't tolerate "mutants, blasphemies and abominations" including David's little friend, Sophie, who ha...

I'm a big fan of all Stephanie's books, and this one didn't disappoint. In part, however, it was because it included so many elements I'm familiar with, and appreciate, in her work. She usually has a large cast of characters, and on this case there were so many that I had to keep flipping back to remind myself who they were and how they were connected together. But it means that she can use them to full advantage to place plenty of red herrings, and it sets the scene and breaks up the action extremely well. (It's something I struggle with in my own books, so I admire the way she can juggle so many different personalities and voices.) The heroine was a little too self-effacing and saccharine sweet for me to warm to her particularly, and my favourite character was Carrissa who was flawed, and yet somehow still very likeable. Another thing I appreciate about Stephanie's work is that the people who are murdered are usually bad types, so I don't waste my symp...

I'm going to come right out and say that I loved this book. It was well written, meticulously researched, and beautifully brought together at the end with one shock revelation after another. It made many great moral points about social injustice without being either preachy or irrelevant to the modern reader, and it was very satisfying to see some of the more arrogant characters get their comeuppance. I thought the dialogue was especially good, and I warmed to Winnie and Wills from the beginning. I particularly loved the handling of the romance between servants Simon and Anne, and I found myself really liking Genevieve too, despite being convinced that I shouldn't because she was betrothed to Wilfred, our dashing hero. I enjoyed how that little love triangle worked out. To be completely fair I usually try to find something to criticise in the books I review, but was hard pressed to do so here. I did get confused by the large number of characters and occasionally had to ...

No time to blog today, I have to: Link to my new book ( No Escape ) on Shelfari so that it appears on the widget on my blog Update my Facebook page with a reminder to enter the competition to win a copy of No Escape. Read a recently published book and post reviews on Amazon, Shelfari and Goodreads so that the author will return the favour and give me some publicity for No Escape. Add an Amazon link to my blog so that readers can buy No Escape. Fix a problem with my author website which has lost the side menu. Update said website  to announce the release of No Escape. Arrange to have my profile put on LDS Author Network Send a chapter of a current work-in progress to a beta reader Beta read two novels and report in detail to the authors regarding suggested improvements. Research the cost of antique suits of armour for Blackwood, a work-in-progress about an antique shop. Organise a launch party for No Escape. Look into the possibility of doing a blog...

It's new year, and amidst the usual resolutions I make at this time every year (lose weight, go to bed early, keep a journal, stop making resolutions I never keep) I have added a new goal: I'm going to write a minimum of 500 words a day. That's easy actually. An email to my boss, shopping list, couple of Facebook comments, submission letter and I'm halfway there... No? Right. Because when I say write I mean write. As in, creatively. As in, novel. And that's a bit more difficult. In fact, I'm starting to feel (on only day 3) as though I've signed up for a whole year of NaNoWriMo purgatory. But I've printed out my "Don't Break the Chain" chart  so that I can keep tabs on my goal, and I'm going to be reporting my progress weekly on my Facebook page so that I can be accountable to all my lovely readers. And 500 words a day means that I can write two 80,000 word novels a year which would seem to be somewhat conducive to keeping the pu...

A couple of years ago a friend asked for advice on writing and publishing his book. I told him all I knew (not much) and wished him luck. And a few months ago he gleefully posted on Facebook that he was now a published author. How I rejoiced as I followed the link to his masterpiece. How my heart sank when I saw "Authorhouse" across the top bar on my screen. You know how I feel about self publishing. I can't help feeling he sold out. Which is more than his book will do. I asked him, in that wheedling way of mine, "Why?" Why did he give up? Why did he fund the publication of his book himself, and forego any possibility of profit or royalties, not to mention any sense of achievement, affirmation or accomplishment. "I got fed up with being rejected," he replied. As much as you are warned that rejection is part and parcel of being an author, it still smarts.  I'm  fed up with being rejected.  Emon and the Emperor  has now been rejected by fift...

I've got a new book coming out shortly. It's called No Escape  and it's a romantic thriller about a newly widowed New York cop who tries to escape his grief by taking part in an exchange program and going to rural North Wales. There he meets a tough single mother who hates everyone and trusts no one, and finds himself charged with protecting her as she becomes embroiled in some nefarious activities through her drug-dealing brother. I started writing the book about fifteen years ago when I was working in an office next door to Bangor Police Station and met a couple of the drugs squad officers there. The book describes the local area in considerable detail and yesterday, mid-way through editing, I decided it would be fun to remind myself of the place I lived for so long via Google maps. You can imagine my disappointment as I discovered that the police station, bus station and Students' Union, which all feature heavily in the book, are no longer there. In fact, where the...