Letters and business cards

In September I'm heading off to the London Screenwriters Festival. I am so excited... I only have one screenplay to hawk about (my adaptation of Mrs Sinclair's Suitcase), but it is dear to my heart and I'm so looking forward to getting help and advice to move the project forward. Apparently business cards are essential at the festival, so I organised some this week:

Bit of a Mrs S theme to these... couldn't resist popping a photo of Mrs Sinclair's foreign editions on the back! 

Getting back to my novel writing, I thought I'd share more of my forthcoming novel A Life Between Us. It's a story told in three strands, and one of those is a series of childhood letters written by my protagonist, Tina, as a child in the 1970s. The letters are all written to her cousin Elizabeth, who Tina has never met, and who doesn't appear in the novel. I don't know about you, but I love epistolary novels, and although mine isn't told entirely in letters, they do play a major part. Here is the first of the letters that Tina writes. It appears after the prologue (please see my previous post!) and before chapter one.

Wednesday 29^th October 1975

Dear Elizabeth

Thank you, thank you for being my pen pal. I have wanted a pen pal for a long time. Its handy that your dad is my Uncle Robert but its funny because I have never met him. He went to live in New Zeeland in 1963 my dad said, a long time ago but he lives in America now which you will know because thats where you live. You and me are cusins which is nice. My name is Tina Thornton (we have the same last name you see?) and I am 8 years old in 3 days, on the first of November, don’t forget my birthday please but I know its too late for this year and can you tell me when is yours? I have a twin sister her name is Meg. She is one day older than me. Meg is bossy and sumetimes I don’t like her but most of the time I do like her. Do you have any sisters or bruthers? My proper name is Christina and Megs is Marghuerite but we dont like our real names much. We get teased about them. Other kids say they are posh names la-di-da. We live with our mummy and daddy. In our village we also have our granny and grampys house and our Aunty Lucia lives there too. She is your dads sister! My dad is your dads yungest brother! We have another granny and grampy but we dont see them much. Please write back, I am excited to get your next letter and now I will finish,

Love from Tina Thornton nearly aged 8

PS my hobbies are writing letters. I love reading too. My Uncle Edward says I am a bookworm like him. I like playing with my dolls.

If you would like an early read of A Life Between Us and you could review it, please let me know and I can send you an ARC in October. The novel will also be on Netgalley from December. The publication date is 28 February 2017.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope to have cover news to share soon...

A Life Between Us

I'm thrilled to say I'm kicking off my publicity campaign for my forthcoming novel, A Life Between Us. Today I'm excited (and a little lot nervous) to share with you the prologue.

Quick heads up: A Life Between Us will be published by Matador in February 2017. However, if you fancy an early read, I am arranging for Advanced Review Copies to be printed in September/October. I'm currently putting together a list of readers who would like an ARC, in return for a review. It doesn't have to be a long or beautifully crafted review (although that would be brilliant). On Amazon or Goodreads, just one sentence or even one word will suffice. On Goodreads, simply leaving a star rating is enormously helpful to authors. I'd also be thrilled to do interviews and Q&As on blogs. I'm open to ideas! This novel has been on quite a journey, and there is a story behind the story, I think. I'm always up for talking about my self-publishing decision, and the experience of self-publishing after being traditionally published.

Proofed and good to go...

Please do get in touch on here, on Twitter @LouiseWalters12, or on my Facebook writer's page if you are interested in a review copy. What I won't be doing is sending out unsolicited ARCs... well, maybe one or two... I am mindful that book bloggers and authors tend to get bombarded by books. But please accept this blog post as an invitation. I'd be happy to add you to the list.

A Life Between Us will also be available to request on Netgalley, from around December.

OK,  here's the prologue in full. I do hope you enjoy it.

July 2014

Lucia wandered from room to empty room. The house whispered to her, echoing with the sounds and colours of days gone by. The removal men hovered outside. The taxi she’d booked had arrived, and the driver tapped his steering wheel, looking hopefully at the house, the engine of his car ticking over. They could all wait. In the small bedroom at the back of the house she gazed for the last time at the green fields, the clouds gathering in the distance, the summer hedges in full flow. The cows grazed as they had always grazed, the sun shone over the fields like it had always shone and always would. She crept into the room that had once been her parents’, then her mother’s, then for many years her brother’s. It was a particularly barren room, scarred by the removal of its furniture. The wallpaper had faded to a forgettable off-white, where it had once been a rich cream scattered with tiny rosebuds. This was a house that breathed its history; it sighed and whispered of its tragedies, of which there had been two. Unforgivable events that could not be undone, like all tragedies. But Lucia hoped they could now, at last, be forgotten.  

            In her bedroom, the sullen emptiness was hard to bear. She stood reluctantly at the window and heard once more, as she always would hear, those plaintive cries: No! Please! Stop! Forgive me! She looked down at the floor beneath the window and there was still the pale pink stain on the floorboards. She’d not managed to clean it completely, despite scrubbing and scrubbing, again and again. No matter. The house wasn’t hers anymore. 

            She slowly struggled down the steep narrow staircase, her gait awkward. Her leg had not been right for weeks. Since the day Edward— But she would not think of that. She would not think of him again, her handsome brother; the monster he had become, the monster he had in fact always been. She would never see him again. Her mind was set. Never. She would not see any of them: not Simone ‒ especially not Simone ‒ not even Tina. Despite everything, Lucia supposed she was indebted to her niece, and in her dark heart there lurked somewhere a solitary beat of gratitude.

            Downstairs, she made sure to leave all the interior doors open. The house could do with an airing. The new owners would no doubt tear the place apart, rip up the carpets downstairs, put in new flooring. There had been talk of an extension and a conservatory. In need of modernisation. There had been a suggestion that all those overgrown plum trees at the top of the garden would need to come out. They blocked the afternoon light. The laurel hedge too, so thick and overgrown… She wondered at the destruction to be wrought upon this, the only home she’d ever known – Lane’s End House. Many years ago her father had proudly chosen the name. Would that also have to be changed?

            She pulled the front door to behind her and took her time in locking it. She made her way down the three front steps and walked across the lawn to the gate. She closed it behind her, taking care not to let it clang shut. That would be too much.  

            She opened the door to her taxi and slowly settled herself into the passenger seat. The removal men climbed into their cab, one of them throwing away the remains of his cigarette with obvious relief. The van’s engine started, loud and raucous. Miss Lucia Thornton fastened her seatbelt and stared resolutely ahead. The van pulled away, the taxi followed, and she did not look back.

The Sister book launch

I recently had the great pleasure of attending the launch party for Louise Jensen's debut novel, The Sister. On a warm July evening, my daughter and I drove to Kettering and found the venue, Not Just Words Bookshop, with its wonderful staircase...

Then we entered the delightfully relaxed and quirky second hand bookshop and spotted this lovely cake...

The shop is full of not only books, but musical instruments and squashy sofas. A talented pianist serenaded the guests. We were greeted by Louise, who looked beautiful in her stylish jumpsuit...

Here she is, signing copies of The Sister.

Louise and I got to know each other through the Womentoring Project, and I worked with Louise over a few weeks during the (very) early stages of her work on the story that was to become The Sister. Louise was brilliant to work with, and I think we both learned a lot from our Womentoring experience.

I'm so pleased for Louise and the huge success she is enjoying with her first novel, and I'm proud to have helped out, even though it was in a small way... Louise has oodles of talent and I know she would have become published with or without Womentoring.

I was so moved to open up my copy of the book and see my mention in the acknowledgements. I wasn't expecting that! (Well, maybe I hoped...!) Always exciting to find your name in somebody else's book ;-)

It was a truly lovely launch party, full of warmth (literally and metaphorically!), family and friends. The pride in the room was palpable. Louise's publicist from Bookoutre rightfully enthused about The Sister in her speech, and Louise's own speech was fantastic... if she was nervous it certainly didn't show.

Me, Kim Nash (from Bookoutre), Louise Jensen and fellow Northamptonshire author Jane Isaac.

I drove home on a high. It really was a special evening (and my daughter came away with a pile of interesting books! I resisted...)

Many congratulations to Louise. Can't wait for the next novel!

xx