Wednesday, 11 November 2015

THE REJECT'S CLUB by ELAINE ROCKETT...

I have now re-published The Reject's Club as a tome (full version as opposed to serialization) for those of you who (like myself) prefer tomes.

This is the Kindle version

This is the paperback version.

Note that it's going to still be available as a series.

I am also marketing my work via Wattpad, which allows me to post my novel chapter by chapter, for readers to view.  


I won't be uploading loads of chapters, though- to read the lot you will have to buy my novel.  A girl's gotta make a living somehow!

Agents and publishers take note- I am here and I'm not going away.
I've got about twenty or so more agents to send my work to, in the hope of proper publication.

Once I've done that I'll begin my second novel properly.  So far I've made notes and completed some research but I put this work hold whilst trying to get The Reject's Club "out there."  I just thought it was better to concentrate on one project at a time and give it my all.

Monday, 9 November 2015

DYING TO TELL by ROBERT GODDARD

DYING TO TELL
BY ROBERT GODDARD


THE BLURB:-
Lance Bradley, idling his life away in the little Somerset town of Glastonbury, suddenly receives a call for help from the eccentric sister of his old friend Rupert Adler. Reluctantly, Lance goes to London, to discover that Rupe's employers want him tried for fraud. A Japanese businessman claims he has stolen a document of huge importance. And a private detective is demanding money for trying to trace, on Rupe's behalf, an American called Townley, who was involved in a mysterious death at Wilderness Farm, near Glastonbury, back in 1963.

No sooner has Lance discovered that whatever Rupe was up to is too risky to get involved in than he finds that he already is involved, and the only way to get out is to get in deeper still. Where is Rupe? What is the document he has stolen? Who is Townley? And what happened at Wilderness Farm nearly thirty years before that holds the key to a secret more amazing than Lance Bradly could ever have imagined?

THE REALITY:-
I haven't read a Robert Goddard book for... oh, it must be over fifteen years now. I can't remember the exact story behind Set In Stone but do remember that it was based around a weird, circular building called Otherways and was really great. I might have read one or two other novels of his around the same time, but would have to do my research into that.

This was a thriller in the truest sense of the word, with a fast pace, a few killings and a fair few near misses. The quest to find out the contents of “the letter” created the urge to keep turning the pages. I had to put this book down after the first chapter as I developed viral conjunctivitis, which made it nigh-on difficult for me to read for the best part of ten days, what with the state of my watery, streaming eyes, but I easily managed to pick up the thread. You have to keep on your toes with a thriller, as so many different characters come into play in such a story- it helps to have a good memory!


I loved the descriptions of the cities Lance visited and it was enough to make me want to visit Berlin, San Francisco and Japan (especially Kyoto, home of the Geisha- bucket list!) What happened to Rupert was sad- the price you pay for meddling- but I'm glad that a member of his family avenged that particular crime. With interesting twists and turns right to the end, one of the most interesting involved Mildred's relationship with her simpleton brother Howard. Unsavoury, disturbed and plain unwell older brothers play a theme in my next novel. Those of you who know me well will know where my inspiration for this theme springs from.

Monday, 26 October 2015

BLACK AND WHITE SNOW LEOPARD SPARKLY BAG...

My SuperDean kindly bought me this lovely snow leopard print bag as a pressie, to say sorry for giving me viral conjunctivitis (at my suggestion!)  The photo doesn't really do it justice as you can't clearly see all the lovely diamante sparkles it has stuck onto it.  It also has a long strap for wearing slung over the shoulder.
It came from a shop in Ilford called Saffron and was a bargain at £20.  It was the first shop I went in.  Did I do that female thing of then looking around the whole of the shopping centre before going back to the first shop to buy the bag?  Did I hell- I bought it there and then and went to the pub for a glass of wine.  Life is too short to piss about looking in shops for the sake of it.

I am not a typical woman- I am a geezerbird in heels!

SHAWL COLLAR FOXY COAT...

I love these sexy shawl type collars and I also love tie belt coats that define the waist and give a sexy silhouette, so this coat was a winner on most fronts.  I say most as it does have a design fault- it fastens with large poppers which, as the coat is quite fitted, have a habit of popping open, especially by the boobies!  I think I'm going to have to remove the poppers and add buttons and buttonholes, otherwise it's going to start pissing me off, and that's not conductive to happy wearing.

I picked this up for around £41 in New Look.  A friend had kindly given me a 25% off voucher that she had no use for.

I think the fur must be faux fox...  I was in Southend museum recently and they had some stuffed animals in cages on display.  One of them was a fox and he kind of matched my collar.  I swear he was giving me the evil eye.  Mind you, I don't blame him- I wouldn't want to be stuffed and stuck in a glass cage either.

Sunday, 25 October 2015

FELINES BEWARE...ANIMAL PRINT ADORATION...

I bought this dress from Quiz Clothing a while back but have only worn it a handful of times, so I decided to turn it into a top.  I'm never going to win a prize for being the world's best machinist- it was something I really had to work hard at whilst at college, otherwise I wouldn't have passed my fashion course.  I could never work as a machinist or be self-employed sewing for other people- I simply don't have "the knack" and that's with over thirty years' sewing experience behind me.  But my skills are good enough to change that into this and I hope I get more wear out of it.

Call me Kat Slater or Bet Lynch (and many people have!) but I don't think a girl can have too much animal print.  Cats shudder in fear when I walk past!!!!

This leopard and tiger print combination is something I bought from Bay Trading years ago...
I do have a weakness for witchy hems, like this one.  I once designed for a company that supplied Bay Trading and I really loved their signature style- young, feminine, a bit blingy and undeniably sexy.  It's such a shame that they disappeared from the High Street.

Thursday, 15 October 2015

SUNGLASSES AND INFECTED EYEBALLS...


I'm as miserable as hell as I have viral conjunctivitis (I'll spare you the photos- I look like something somewhere between The Phantom Of The Opera and Quasimodo- no comments please!)
As well as being red-eyed, sticky, swollen and weepy, I am also a bit photosensitive, so am sitting at my computer with the curtains closed and sometimes, when the sun peeks out from behind the clouds, I need to put my sunglasses on.  Yes, I'm a freak.

These gorgeous sunnies were £5 from River Island, reduced from £13 and well worth it, what with their girly pink frames, gradual-tinted brown lenses and leopard print arms.  I always stick my High Street sunglasses into a Ray-Ban case so that people think I'm an expensive, classy chick and not a common chav!!!!




Here's the lovely Charlie the Chocolate Magic Monkey modelling them for me.

Sunday, 11 October 2015

THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX by MAGGIE O' FARRELL

THE VANISHING ACT OF ESME LENNOX
BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL


THE BLURB:-
Edinburgh in the 1930s. The Lennox family is having trouble with its youngest daughter. Esme is outspoken, unconventional and repeatedly embarrasses them in polite society. Something will have to be done.

Years later, a young woman named Iris Lockhart receives a letter informing her that she has a great-aunt in a psychiatric unit who is about to be released.

Iris has never heard of Esme Lennox and the one person who should know more, her grandmother Kitty, seems unable to answer Iris's questions. What could Esme have done to warrant a lifetime in an institution? And how is it possible for one person to be so completely erased from a family's history?

THE REALITY:-
This really happened. If a woman didn't “fit in” or was passionate and outspoken, then her husband or her father could have her put into a mental asylum with only a signature from a GP.  Scary and unimaginable nowadays.

I have some personal experience of this. It later transpired that my paternal grandmother, who I believed had died when my father was three, was actually my longest living grandparent, dying when I was six. I recently found out the exact information whilst researching my family tree. As a teenager, it transpired that she “could be still alive” (she was not, by this point) and had actually spent her life in a mental hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown brought on by postnatal depression after having five children (including one who died at birth) in seven years. According to my mother, it was something my father would never talk about- she "went away for good” when he was eight and in those days these kind of things were just not discussed. It's something that should never have happened, wouldn't happen nowadays and is, quite frankly, barbaric. My uncle did some research into her life 25 years ago and I based a small character in my first novel, The Reject's Club, around this theme. I might elaborate upon this more in my second novel, through a different fictitious character and an alternative mental illness.

So, with the benefit of hindsight, it comes with some shock that when I was a feisty teenager, prone to answering back (I prefer to call it sticking up for myself) that I was threatened (on more than one occasion) with being “put away”. When I later developed bulimia, I couldn't confide in my parents for fear that they would deliver on their threat. I later found out that things like that no longer happen (we now have care in the community). Thanks, parents- I love you too. How my father could be like that, I do not know. But then, I suppose I have no idea about his exact experiences and sufferings, so it's wrong for me to judge.

As you can see this book touched a personal nerve in me. I've said it before and I will say it again: I find the attitudes of that generation (post Victorian and pre 1960s) SERIOUSLY OFFENSIVE!

Enough of going off on a tangent! Esme, the institutionalized lady comes out of the asylum sixty years on, seemingly sane. It's a nice twist that her sister, the person partially responsible for her incarceration (and another wrongdoing that I shan't spoil for you) is now the one with a broken mind, in the from of Alzheimer's.

At first I wasn't sure about the style of this book, written in the present tense and with no chapters; instead just sections running into one another. But as you get to know all of the interesting characters, it seems to work. Esme's anger and frustration was so real you could taste it and Kitty didn't escape with a charmed life either. If there is such a thing as karma, she certainly had her share of it metered out. I liked the way the story unfolded, with some unexpected twists, and also the way the ending leaves you with something to work out and think about...