Blog Tour: What Happened That Night by Sheila O'Flanagan

About the Book:
Lola Fitzpatrick is bright and ambitious but she's also headstrong and stubborn. When one evening, out of the blue, she has to make a life-changing choice, she decides quickly and rashly. And without a piece of vital information that might have changed everything.
Lola's daughter Bey has inherited Lola's determined nature. Yet her impulsive reactions place her in danger, leading her to run away from what she wants most. And then, one night, she's standing in front of the man she loves, with her own choice to make...
For both Lola and Bey, everything changes in a moment. But their biggest mistakes might also turn out to be their greatest opportunities...

The Inspiration Behind 'What Happened That Night': When people ask about inspiration for my novels I’m often very vague with my answers because I’m never entirely sure where the inspiration has actually come from. All I know is that it’s popped into my head.

I’d been thinking of writing about an estranged family for quite a while before a conversation with the jeweller when I was choosing my wedding ring a few years ago made me think of incorporating the world of ‘haute-joaillerie’ (high class jewellery) as part of a new novel. And as soon as I began to imagine how that might work, Lola and Bey’s stories seemed to emerge like polished diamonds from rough stones.

I might have done more research than I absolutely needed to get the background right - this had nothing at all to do with the fact that putting on very expensive pieces of jewellery is an enormous thrill - it was all about being accurate. Well maybe. It was just a pity I had to hand back those gorgeous necklaces and bracelets every time!

The characters are always the most important part of a novel for me. They have real jobs, real lives and real families and all I’m doing is drawing their stories out. So it’s the decisions that both Lola and Bey make, and the fallout from those decisions as well as their relationship with each other and with Bey’s father and his family that are the very core of the story. This book has a wide cast of characters but because they’re all different in their own way I didn’t have any trouble keeping them in my head.

But in What Happened That Night the jewels are characters too. Until I started my jewellery research I’d never really thought much about precious gemstones, but - like Bey in the book - I’m fascinated by the fact that  they would have started to form  at a time when dinosaurs were roaming around the world.

And I still think from time to time that the small diamonds in my ring have witnessed all of the world’s history and will still be around in millions of years, even though none of us will be.

The truth is that you don’t really own a precious stone. It just stays with you as an onlooker in your life. But it’s a very glamorous onlooker!

Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour and What Happened That Night which will be released on the 13th July! 

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You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading.

Blog Tour: All the Good Things by Clare Fisher

Title: All the Good Things

Author: Clare Fisher

Format: Advance Reader Copy

Source: Received from the publisher for an honest review

Pages: 280

Rating: 4/5

Blurb: Twenty-one year old Beth is in prison. The thing she did is so bad she doesn't deserve to ever feel good again.

But her counsellor, Erika, won't give up on her. She asks Beth to make a list of all the good things in her life. So Beth starts to write down her story, from sharing silences with Foster Dad No. 1, to flirting in the Odeon on Orange Wednesdays, to the very first time she sniffed her baby's head.

But at the end of her story, Beth must confront the bad thing.

What is the truth hiding behind her crime? And does anyone-even a 100% bad person-deserve a chance to be good?

This was such an experience of a book. I wasn't expecting to be so thoroughly absorbed, especially when much of the book is based around flashbacks almost, and therapy sessions. But from the first chapter I was totally hooked into the story and into Beth's mind.

I found myself getting really emotional, even in only the first few chapters, and I definitely felt for Beth. Even the "Good Things" of the title sometimes made me feel a little sad. The stories about her foster parents especially I found quite moving. This wasn't a foster-nightmare, there wasn't abuse or mistreatment. But the sheer fact of being in a home that isn't really yours and being raised by people who aren't your parents just came across as so lonely and I just wanted to reach through the book and hug her so many times. 

I wasn't totally surprised by the bad thing Beth did, I obviously don't want to say too much because I don't want to spoil it for anyone else. But I did suspect what it might be from fairly early on. However this didn't really change the effect the journey and the discovery had on me. I was so willing to just go with Beth and learn whatever she was willing to tell me whenever she was willing to tell it. And I definitely still got very emotionally affected towards the end of the book. 

I've never been to prison but I have been in therapy and whilst I had a very different kind of therapy I still related to Beth's journey and her personal growth. The main strength of All the Good Things is just how real it felt. Not just the characters but the situations and the events all felt so, sometimes devastatingly, real and it added so much to the impact of the story.

All the Good Things wasn't at all what I was expecting from it but it was such a great, emotional and just brilliantly crafted book. I definitely recommmend picking it up if you're at all intrigued and I can't wait to see what Clare Fisher writes next! 

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading.

Blog Tour: My Sister by Michelle Adams

Title: My Sister

Author: Michelle Adams

Pages: 375

Blurb: My Sister tells the story of Irini, who was given away by her parents at the age of three, whilst her volatile, destructive sister was kept within the family. Twenty years later Irini receives a phone call from her estranged sister to say that their mother has died, compelling her to return for the first time to the family home, and to uncover the shocking truth that has defined both their lives.

I am drawn to books about sister relationships always. And I am so glad I had the chance to read this. At first I was worried I wasn't liking the book. I felt uncomfortable and off balance - but then I realised that's what made it so good. 

Elle and Irini aren't really likable. Elle is terrifying. Charismatic and difficult with a long, long victim list. Irini on the other hand was unlikable only in her weakness. In her youth when she went along with everything Elle said and did - no matter the cost to other people. I found it hard in places to read about the hurt she caused others, her and Elle, and yet I never doubted Irini. I wanted her to get a good ending, to have the resolution she needed. 

What really struck me with My Sister is how real it felt. So often, in thrillers, I am along for the ride and enjoying it - but always conscious of how unlikely it all is! Here, there was none of that. Elle and Irini and all the other characters felt like real people to me, fleshed out and realistic. Their actions were human even when they were bad and I really felt for Irini towards the end as she lost control of what was happening. I didn't always agree with her decisions certainly, but I always believed in them.

The twists were ones I never saw coming which is always great! I am still processing the last few chapters and I have a few unanswered questions regarding the future. But this isn't frustrating to me so much as ensuring that I will keep thinking about this book for a long time to come. There were moments towards the end that I felt were a little too rushed, the pace changed abruptly and so many things were revealed in such a short amount of time that ultimately we didn't get to spend so long unwrapping them as I would have liked. 

Overall though this was an intriguing and exciting read with very human (though not always likable) characters. If you find family dynamics as fascinating as I do, especially in thrillers, then I really do recommend this and I am very interested to see what Michelle Adams will write next!

Trigger Warnings:

Definite trigger warnings for abuse, sexual assault, rape and mental illness. 

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading. 

Blog Tour: Close to Me by Amanda Reynolds

I am excited to welcome Amanda Reynolds to the blog today for the blog tour for Close to Me.

About the Book:

She can't remember the last year. Her husband wants to keep it that way.

When Jo Harding falls down the stairs at home, she wakes up in hospital with partial amnesia-she's lost a whole year of memories. A lot can happen in a year. Was Jo having an affair? Lying to her family? Starting a new life?

She can't remember what she did-or what happened the night she fell. But she's beginning to realise she might not be as good a wife and mother as she thought.

Five Books I have Recently Read…

1.       Weightless – Sarah Bannan I don’t read much Young Adult literature, but this for me is more crossover fiction than straight YA; and anyway, I loved it! It’s written in second person, which is quite different, but it works so well to illustrate the collective mentality of a group of teenagers obsessed by the new girl at their school. The subtext of menace is always there, along with those twin teenage preoccupations: image and status. It’s beautifully written and a devastating read.

2.      Gone Without a Trace – Mary Torjussen I loved the way this book built and built. It kept me guessing all the way through and the premise is instantly engaging, ‘What would you do if you came home and found your partner had left, erasing every trace of themselves from your life?’ The author has cleverly plotted this intricate tale, and there’s a thought-provoking subject at its heart which isn’t often spoken about. I’m a slow reader, but I devoured it in a few days; could not put it down.

3.      The Doll Funeral – Kate Hamer I think this second outing for Kate Hamer is even better than her great debut, The Girl in the Red Coat. She has such a lyrical way of describing the Forest of Dean where the book is set. It’s an unusual story, with supernatural elements, and influences again from classic fairy tales. The author captures a child’s view of a mixed-up world with pin-point accuracy.

4.      The Girl Before – J P Delaney This book has short snappy sections from different points of view and I love that. It’s how I’m writing my next book. It’s being made into a film by Ron Howard and I could imagine it working well on screen, it has a very filmic quality and a fabulous premise. One Folgate Street offers its tenants the chance to lead a perfect life, but at what price?

5.      My Sister – Michelle Adams As a child, I always wanted a brother or sister, but maybe not after reading about Elle. She is a truly terrifying creation. This book has it all: creepy houses, dysfunctional relationships, crazed sisters and dark family secrets. I can’t say much more without giving anything away, but suffice to say it gets darker and more twisted as you read on.

Don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour as well! 

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading.

Q & A with Christopher Fowler for Wild Chamber Blog Tour

Our story begins at the end of an investigation, as the members of London's Peculiar Crimes Unit race to catch a killer near London Bridge Station in the rain, not realising that they’re about to cause a bizarre accident just yards away from the crime scene. And it will have repercussions for them all…

One year later, in an exclusive London crescent, a woman walks her dog – but she’s being watched. When she’s found dead, the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in to investigate. Why? Because the method of death is odd, the gardens are locked, the killer had no way in - or out - and the dog has disappeared.
So a typical case for Bryant & May. But the hows and whys of the murder are not the only mysteries surrounding the dead woman - there's a missing husband and a lost nanny to puzzle over too. And it seems very like that the killer is preparing to strike again.
As Arthur Bryant delves in to the history of London’s ‘wild chambers’ - its extraordinary parks and gardens, John May and the rest of the team seem to have caused a national scandal. If no-one is safe then all of London’s open spaces must be closed…
With the PCU placed under house arrest, only Arthur Bryant remains at liberty – but can a hallucinating old codger catch the criminal and save the unit before it’s too late?

1) Tell us about your book - Wild Chamber?

It’s about an impossible murder in a locked park, and through it Bryant & May uncover the strange secret history of London’s green spaces.

2) Who are some of your favourite authors?

Where to start? I have 120 books still to read on my Kindle at the moment, but let’s start with Dickens, EM Forster, Alexander Baron, Virginia Woolf, JG Ballard, lots of modern crime writers like Val McDermid, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves.

3) What inspires you?

Researching weird historical facts and talking to people, then coupling the human stories with the ones I’ve discovered.

4) What is it about mysteries that intrigues you as a writer?

They’re puzzle-boxes, but the best ones are more than just good fun – they make a point about society.

5) What is your writing process like?

Get up, go to my study, start work, try to avoid bad things in fridge, stop for lunch, get involved in disastrous displacement activity, go to theatre/cinema/pub, then repeat. Through weekends too!

6) What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I travel as much as I can – about to go dog-sledding to the North Pole, then off to somewhere hot. I have trouble staying still, but always have my laptop on me.

7) Do you have a favourite character to write about?

Bryant & May feel like they’ve been with me forever now, and are second nature.

8) Which scene did you find most challenging to write in Wild Chamber?

The one with a famous figure from British history. It took a LOT of research to write just the one short scene.

9) Do you know exactly how the plot is going to unfold before you start writing or does it develop as you write?

I have no idea. They say writers are either map-makers or gardeners. The former plan everything, the latter just chuck seeds about.

10) What are you working on now?

The next Bryant & May novel, ‘Hall Of Mirrors’, ‘The Book of Forgotten Authors’, out from Quercus in October, and a new stand-alone thriller.

Thank you very much to Christopher Fowler for taking the time to answer our questions! And don't forget to check out the other stops on the tour as well. I'll be posting my review for Wild Chamber in April so keep an eye out for that!!

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading.

Blog Tour: Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen

I am excited to be taking part in the blog tour for Gone Without a Trace by Mary Torjussen which is released today! We are joined on the blog by Mary Torjussen who talks about her Top 5 Twists in Crime Fiction!

1) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie’s novels were my first introduction to adult books and I read them avidly, trying desperately to work out who the culprit was and why they’d committed the crime. Through reading her novels I learned about plot devices that crime writers use, such as red herrings, and this made me realise that the novel didn’t just happen, but was planned in meticulous detail. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first time I’d encountered an unreliable narrator and I remember the shock I felt as I realised the author’s deception. I re-read it immediately to work out how she’d managed to fool me and from then on I read crime novels in a much more analytical way.

2) Sister by Rosamund Lipton

In Sister we read about Beatrice and her search for her missing sister, Tess. Its theme is sisterhood – or love – and the lengths to which we’ll go to find and protect the ones we love, but it contains another theme, one which I love most in a novel, which is how much we can ever know someone, despite our close relationship to them. The novel is suspenseful throughout and the twist is so huge that I went straight back to the beginning and started again. I have four sisters and recognised instantly the intensity of feeling that Beatrice would have, yet as we all live in different cities with our own families, I realised after reading this novel that there’s the distinct possibility that I only see the aspects of them that they want to reveal.

3) Tell No One by Harlan Coben

Tell No One has one of the best twists I’ve read. It occurs right at the start, so I hope I’m not giving too much away, but when David Beck, widowed for several years, receives an email telling him to view a website at a specific time, he clicks on the link to see CCTV footage which shows his wife, in real time, walking across a road, looking up at the camera and saying, “I’m sorry.” Though this scene is early in the novel, by the time I read it my pulse was already racing. Published in 2001, it was both the first novel I’d read by Coben and the first I’d read where technology was used both to reveal and to heighten pace and pressure. This had a huge influence on me in the way I write.

4) We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver

Right from the start of We Need to Talk About Kevin, we know that Eva is married to Franklin, and that their son, Kevin, murdered pupils at his own school. The book is epistolary, with each letter being written by Eva to her husband. Though at the start I wondered why Shriver had chosen such a device, I became engrossed so quickly that I forgot to consider this again until the end, when her reasons became horrifyingly clear. Shriver is brutally honest about Eva and Kevin’s relationship and it’s incredibly hard to read at times, but what was obvious to me was that she knew him. She understood him. And what happened then became inevitable, in a perfect example of characters determining plot.

5) The Widow by Fiona Barton

This novel has everything: secrets, lies, betrayals, unreliable narrators and a twist that blew me away. In The Widow, like all the best crime novels, nothing is quite what it seems. This terrific story, full of dark, claustrophobic oppression, considers what it’s like to live with someone who’s committed a terrible crime. I can’t be the only reader who wondered how on earth this theme had never been dealt with before, nor the only writer who kicked herself for not thinking of it first. Fiona Barton keeps us guessing right to the very end, but more than that, has written a novel which stayed with me for long after it was finished. 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

No one ever disappears completely...

You leave for work one morning.

Another day in your normal life.

Until you come home to discover that your boyfriend has gone.

His belongings have disappeared.

He hasn't been at work for weeks.

It's as if he never existed.

But that's not possible, is it?

And there is worse still to come.

Because just as you are searching for him

someone is also watching you.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Mary Torjussen has an MA in Creative Writing from Liverpool John Moores University. She worked for several years as a teacher and lives outside of Liverpool, where Gone Without a Trace is set.

Author links:

Follow Mary on Twitter 

Follow Mary on Goodreads

Don't forget to check out the other stops on the blog tour as well to find out more about Gone Without a Trace! 

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare), Facebook and Instagram to keep up with what we are reading.

Guest Post: America Deconstructed by Chaithanya Sohan and Shaima Adin

BEING AN AMERICAN ALIEN

“Welcome to the United States of America”, the immigration officer said in my direction. As a teenager, I was clueless on the enormity of those words. My family and I did not know those words allowed us a sense of freedom. We no longer had to look behind our back in fear of jeopardizing our American dream.. We failed to understand we were in the Promised Land. Today, after doing fifteen years to potential life in America, I know the enormity of those words. In 2001, I was crossing borders for the first time. I had never left India until that first flight ride to America. Today as an avid traveller who walks through immigration at least twice in a year, “welcome to the United States of America” marks a celebration.

On that chilly July evening, my life as an immigrant or an American Alien officially began. I was given an alien number. I felt privileged to be an alien in America until I saw a Hollywood movie with slimy, green aliens. The word Alien felt less privileged by the end of the two hour movie. That was my first tryst with cultural difference. The days and years ahead had several embarrassing moments such as standing at the Starbucks counter wondering what a Frappuccino or Cappuccino was or being called Shitanya. At every embarrassing moment I hoped they handed me a manual of past experiences so I could feel less alien and more American. America Deconstructed was born in those moments.

America Deconstructed is the love child of that American Alien who walked into America fifteen years ago. Every immigrant journey is filled with funny, embarrassing moments that stem from cultural differences. This book chronicles those moments as it explores life, love and family. If you are looking for a easy read for a lazy Sunday afternoon with steaming hot cup of tea, please pre-order our book by clicking the link below.

Crowdfunding Link:

https://publishizer.com/america-deconstructed/

Social media links:

https://www.facebook.com/AmericaDeconstructed/

https://twitter.com/america_deconst

https://www.instagram.com/america_deconstructed/

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34234648-america-deconstructed

https://americadeconstructedblog.wordpress.com

AUTHOR BIO:

Chaithanya Sohan immigrated to America from India in 2001. She currently works as an Electrical Engineer in the Silicon Valley. Chaithanya graduated from San Jose State University with Bachelors in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University.

Chaithanya Sohan has worked as a writer since 2002 when she started writing content for various websites. She free-lanced as a writer until 2013 when she decided to write her book America Deconstructed.  Some of her works are published in websites such as www.rethinkreality.com. Chaithanya enjoys traveling and runs her own blogs www.nomadicsue.wordpress.com & www.wordspeare.wordpress.com.

Shaima Adin came to the United States as a refugee in May 2000 at the age of 16 with her mother and sisters. She is originally from Afghanistan but has lived several years of her life in Pakistan as a refugee as well.  Currently, she works in an engineering management position at a Safety and Quality-testing laboratory in Union City, CA.

In light of recent times and all the debate about immigrants and refugees around the world, Shaima joined forces with Chaithanya to put forth the stories of immigrants from different backgrounds that have called America home. Her purpose in doing so is to paint a different picture of immigrants and refugees by displaying their side of the stories and the struggles of starting from nothing.

SYNOPSIS OF THE BOOK:

Naseer was nine years old when he escaped Taliban and fled Afghanistan. His story, “There are some people who are coming to take me away”, chronicles the resilience of a nine year old boy as he travelled from Afghanistan to America in his quest for the American dream. “I saw a ripe mango I’d like to pluck” showcases the love story of Chidibere and Ifeyinwa and their struggles with language, culture and being African in America. In the story “Kosovo, really...cool”, Lisian takes us through his journey to America and often being asked his identity in spite of being white.  In the story “I am exotic, mocha, P-Diddy”, Parag describes his journey from a young sixth grader who hid his attraction to boys in conservative India to embracing his sexuality in America. America Deconstructed follows the journeys of sixteen immigrants as they manoeuvre cultural differences, accents and uncomfortable situations while feeling a sense of belonging in America.

Blog Tour: Trapped in Wonderland by Dani Hoots

Release Date: 1st February 2017, Genre: YA Fantasy

Blurb: Meredith Alice Hughes has found herself falling through a portal and into Wonderland. There, she finds some of her classmates, who are actually fictional characters from Lewis Carroll’s “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”, and they use a potion to make her forget everything. Everything would have been fine, that is, until the White Rabbit tries to murder her and she finds herself in Wonderland once more. Apparently, according to a prophecy, Alice is the only one who can save Wonderland from the Cirque de Rêves, a group that is trying to destroy and takeover the world. Little does Alice know that not only is Wonderland in danger, but her home world as well, because all the citizens in Wonderland represent the dreams of every living human in the real world, and when they start to disappear, so does the hope of every living thing. Will Alice believe in herself enough to defeat the Cirque de Rêves? Or will she fall victim to the dark thoughts that reside in her heart?

Goodreads/Amazon/Amazon UK/Website

I love retellings and perhaps my favourite kind are Alice in Wonderland stories. Wonderland is such a weird and diverse world - stories set there end up being just as unique. In Trapped in Wonderland we follow the main character Alice, who finds herself unexpectedly taken to Wonderland where the Kingdom of Dreams has been taken over by Morpheus. Dani Hoots very cleverly created a new kingdom all her own within the Wonderland world. So whilst the weird, creepiness of Wonderland remains - we are also learning about a new kingdom with a new King and Queen that look like being interesting characters in the future.

We do, however, get some of the old characters (the Cheshire Cat, the Mad Hatter etc.) although they seem very different in this story. My personal favourite was Chase (the Cheshire Cat) who was a bit of a trickster but clearly had more depth to him that I am excited to see developed in future books. Malcolm was perhaps the most mysterious of the characters. There is plenty hinted at but not revealed and I am interested to learn more about him as the series progresses. 

I wasn't a huge fan of the romance angle but I did like the focus on friendship. Alice had a longtime friend - Kate - and I liked the glimpses of their relationship that we saw. She also had a developing friendship with all of the boys as they had to trust and rely on each other to survive and defeat Morpheus. The story itself was very action packed with events moving very fast. This made for a very page-turning read although there were still moments to pause and take in the beauty of the world.

This is one of those Young Adult books that I know will appeal most to teenagers - there were pop culture references that went a little over my head but would make sense to teens and wherever I found I wanted to shake Alice I know that my sister would be cheering her on! I would say that Alice went very quickly from helpless to kick-ass (she learned sword fighting in one day) which kept the plot moving but seemed unrealistic. 

Overall this is a promising start to a new series. I liked the world Dani Hoots has created whilst also paying tribute to one of my favourite fictional worlds in a fitting way and I think there is a lot of scope for the characters to develop as the series continues. It's definitely a series that I will be wanting to finish and I can't wait to see what Alice does next! 

About the Author:

Dani Hoots is a science fiction, fantasy, romance, and young adult author who loves anything with a story. She has a B.S. in Anthropology, a Masters of Urban and Environmental Planning, and is currently in the Your Novel Year Program through Arizona State University.

Currently she is working on a YA urban fantasy series called Daughter of Hades, a historic fantasy vampire series called A World of Vampires, and a YA sci-fi series called Sanshlian Series.

Her hobbies include reading, watching anime, cooking, studying different languages, wire walking, tinkering with her violin and concertina, and volunteering at the library. She lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.

You can also find us on Goodreads (Ann and Clare) to keep up with what we are reading.

Blog Tour: Prelude to Mayhem by Edward Aubry

How to write a novel when OOH SHINY

I have ADD. You can read a little more about that here. It makes simple things complicated, ordinary tasks into severe roadblocks, and generally provides me with a constant source of nuisance. I can’t tell you how many times I have missed an important meeting, or left the house without some vital object, or just plain old let someone down because I could not keep my brain organized.

Oh, and I have also written five published novels. So far.

Wait, what? Yeah, no lie. Five books. Some people even like them. But that’s crazy, right? I can’t find my glasses, but I can keep track of a cast of hundreds of characters, dozens of settings, and countless subplots across a trilogy? “There must be a trick!” you say. Of course there’s a trick. Lots of tricks. High functioning people with ADD spend our entire lives contriving tricks. It’s how we can take on huge projects without setting ourselves up for failure. Presented below are a few of my own, for the benefit of any aspiring writers who feel frustrated by their own flakiness. Trust me, I’m flakier than you. These things work for me. As always, your mileage may vary. Try them on for size. Adapt as you see fit. Add your own!

For starters, I can’t write in my own house. My wife thinks that’s nuts, because she works best in her comfort zone. My problem is that my house is where all my STUFF is. And it’s all cool stuff, or I wouldn’t keep it around, right? For a person as distractible as I am (here’s a fun game: see if you can guess how many times I have checked my e-mail since starting to write this piece), being surrounded by cool stuff is a deathtrap for productivity. I’m not home right now. I’m sitting alone in a classroom, half an hour after all my students have left. I have some stuff here, but it’s all mathy, schooly stuff, and much easier to ignore than that Lego castle in my office at home.

So, where do I go? Starbucks, mostly. And no, Seth MacFarlane, I’m not doing it for the attention. Honestly, I kind of hope the people there think I’m just playing on the Internet. I love to talk about my writing, but not when I’m actually doing it. For anyone wondering “which Starbucks?” the answer is all of them. I can’t stick to the same place too often, or I run the same risk I do at home. Familiarity breeds distraction. Changing up my environment is actually much more grounding for me. The thing about ADD is that it’s linked to an underactive frontal lobe, the command and control of the brain. The rest of my gray matter is looking for directions, and my frontal lobe won’t step up and do the job with the authority it deserves. So the brain looks for direction elsewhere, and any kind of stimulation to fill that void. Hence distractible. But if I keep moving, I think my brain’s need for stimulation is satisfied by the change of environment, so it settles down and I can actually concentrate. Or something. I’m no psychologist; I just know it works. There’s a Starbucks about ten miles from my house with a window that faces toward the landscaping at the side of the strip mall instead of the parking lot. That one is great. Pretty view translates into low distraction. There is one in Exton with a gigantic triangular window taking up an entire wall. It’s beautiful architecture for a coffee shop (I think it’s a repurposed bank), and working in it is remarkably easy. And so on. I have taken writing retreats in the Poconos. Once, I stayed in an Airbnb for three days, a few towns over from where I live. I got so much done.

Regarding the writing itself, I have to work from an outline. Lots of writers do that, but I’m not sure anyone who saw one of my outlines would identify it as such. Sometimes it is a list of sentence fragments, describing plot points in vague terms. Sometimes it is just a list of chapter titles and nothing else. Keyword: list. I am extremely reliable with a list in my hands. ADD responds exceedingly well to externally imposed structure. So I force myself to write a list. Any list. As long as it provides some measure of reference to the plot, it barely matters what I write on this list. Just having the nod to organization makes the entire process less intimidating by giving me short-term, easy to meet goals. When I sit down to write, all I need to do is get from one list item to the next. Do that enough times, and I end up with a novel.

Page goals provide another means of keeping me on task. When I wrote the original version of Static Mayhem (parts of which evolved into Prelude to Mayhem, just released), it was, for reasons I now cannot recall, extremely important to me that my chapters each be fifteen typewritten pages. Knowing that my goal was always and only to make it to page fifteen freed me up from the worry of how much detail I should include. The answer was always “exactly enough detail to fill fifteen pages.” I don’t think I would recommend that method to beginners, as it resulted in the need for many revisions, trimming out chaff and developing anything I rushed through. But, if I had never made it to the end, there would have been nothing to revise.

When I wrote Unhappenings, I broke my outline (list) into more than a hundred and twenty chapters, each covering one tiny idea. The choice was deliberate and artistic, as my protagonist’s life kept changing, and I wanted the reader to pick up some sense of the perpetual starts and stops he experienced every day. It turned out that was the smartest thing I could have done to keep me moving through the first draft, because once my goal was simply to hit each idea and end the chapter, I could knock out many chapters per day. Most were two to three pages. Some were less than one. On my last day of writing that draft, I wrote 16,000 words over twelve hours, and at no time did it feel like work. I would love to write all my novels like that, but it’s a gimmick, and it would get old for readers.

The most important thing for me is to keep moving, and to do that, I have to find ways to trick my brain into thinking it’s working on a tiny task, not a gargantuan one. My brain has proved conveniently gullible in this respect. Working on novel number six now, and with at least seven more in the planning stages, I hope to exploit that gullibility for a long, long time.

Prelude to Mayhem (The Mayhem Wave Book 1)

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult, New Adult

Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press

Date of Release­­: November 28, 2016

Description: On May 30, 2004, the world transformed. Nearly all signs of civilization vanished, leaving in their wake a bizarre landscape of wilderness, advanced technology and magic, and leaving Harrison Cody very much alone. After weeks of surviving in solitude, he hears a voice on the radio, beckoning him to cross a thousand miles of terrifyingly random terrain to meet her, and other survivors, in Chicago. Eager to find any remnants of humanity, he sets forth, joined by an unexpected—and inhuman—companion.

For Dorothy O’Neill, the end of the world means she will never finish ninth grade. On her own, she builds a home in the ruins of a strip mall, relying on her ingenuity and hard work to maintain some semblance of creature comforts. When another survivor arrives, he brings futuristic technology and stories of monsters he has encountered. Armed with this information, she takes a new interest in exploring her world, but she is not prepared for what awaits her, and the new arrival has brought his own set of problems.

On their separate journeys, Harrison and Dorothy begin to piece together what has happened to their world. Their questions have answers to be found in what remains of Chicago, and from the mysterious voice on the radio offering the hope that civilization can be rebuilt.

Goodreads

About The Author:

Edward Aubry is a graduate of Wesleyan University, with a degree in music composition. Improbably, this preceded a career as a teacher of high school mathematics and creative writing.Over the last few years, he has gradually transitioned from being a teacher who writes novels on the side to a novelist who teaches to support his family. He is also a poet, his sole published work in that form being the sixteen stanza “The History of Mathematics.”He now lives in rural Pennsylvania with his wife and three spectacular daughters, where he fills his non-teaching hours spinning tales of time-travel, wise-cracking pixies, and an assortment of other impossible things. 

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