Issue 11 - September 2021

Editor’s Letter

This month I have been working with the author of Bedtime Stories, Candice Fortin who is the author of seven animal inspired picture books. Candice originally wrote the books when she was ten years old and has decided to self-publish them. Prior to writing her stories and subsequently, Candice hadn’t had any formal creative writing training and so our work has involved a stream of edits with workshops to provide her with the tools to develop her storytelling skills and knowledge of the craft involved in writing children’s picture book writing.

Candice is incredibly receptive and I’ve suggested she save each version as a separate draft to allow her to see her book’s progress.

As with all editing jobs, I feel Candice and I are learning together, albeit different skills. Please look out for her collection of bedtime stories. I will add the details to her author’s page in the near future.

Happy writing,

Lesley

Contents: writing prompts, book reviews: Mr Wilder and Me, by Jonathan Coe, The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon and, The Abberley Beach Murders, by D. E. White

Writing Prompts

Grabbing her bear, she buried her face in its soft fur. A sob broke from her …

It’s weird how the dream occurred, building each time it was repeated …

The mirror shattered. Brilliant, seven years bad luck thought Millie pinching a fragment of glass from her finger. But, hang on, what was that poking from the frame …

Book Reviews  

Mr Wilder and Me, by Jonathan Coe

This book is beautifully written and the opening pages captured my interest from the start. Teenage Calista travels from Greece on a road trip around America in the 1970s with her friend, Gill. Gill’s father insists she has dinner with a family friend and the girls end up unsuitably dressed at a very swanky restaurant. Gill has recently fallen in love and makes no effort at conversation and then slopes off and leaves Calista in the lurch. Her host at dinner is Billy Wilder, a film director famous in the 1950s, his wife and his business partner Iz and his wife. They begin to discuss a scene from their forthcoming film and the difficulty they’ve had in getting the female lead to show her utter distain. Against her better judgement, Calista has drunk too much and yawns widely, ‘That’s it!’ they cry.

Calista is so drunk that she is taken back to Billy’s house and finds herself on the sofa with only the maid for company the following morning. Billy has left his battered and heavily written in copy of the book they’re adapting for the screenplay and he urges her to read it and let him know what she thinks. Calista can’t think of anything else and returns the book and thinks nothing more of her encounter, but then Billy gets in touch and asks her to be the Greek translator for the film. This chance meeting becomes the beginning of her developing her own career as a film music score writer and the story of her meeting with Billy Wilder begins as her own career is waning. She has been toying with the idea of developing the story of her experiences at the time and with Billy’s film and the story follows her career and some family issues before delving into her childhood and the story of her meeting with Billy and how the start to her own career began.

As is true with all things we don’t get the chance to do when our careers are soaring, this story was definitely one that didn’t hold sufficient interest in needing to be told earlier and sadly I found myself wading through later chapters. The writing nonetheless is beautiful throughout, but didn’t develop sufficiently to hold my attention and to be the page turner it promised from the outset.

The Sun is Also a Star, by Nicola Yoon

I read Everything, Everything on Kindle about two years ago and loved it so much that I bought a physical copy so my daughters could enjoy it. Needless to say, I’ll be doing the same with The Sun is Also a Star.

It seems as if the stars and fate align to bring Natasha and Daniel together on the day Natasha and her family are due to be deported from America as illegal undocumented immigrants. Natasha has worked hard to carve a successful future for herself and just wants the same opportunities as her friends in the only country she’s known and which she calls home. Will she be able to get the help she needs to overcome the judge’s decision?

Nicola Yoon creates characters so convincingly and just glues her readers to the page with what feels like effortless plotting. I felt as if Natasha and Daniel’s journey was one I travelled with them and I had my fingers crossed for the right outcome throughout.

The Abberley Beach Murders, by Daisy White

This is the third in the Detective Dove Milson series published by Joffe Books. Its author, Daisy White, includes sufficient clues in her series that it’s not necessary to read this series in strict order.

The Abberley Beach Murders begins with Dove surfing after a shift at work. She comes back up the beach to find a man being viciously beaten in the secluded beach top car park. Dove challenges the attackers and is set upon, but has diverted the attackers attention and likely saved the life of their victim.

This case is investigated by another division and by the following morning, Dove and her team have their hands full with the shocking deaths of four seemingly unrelated victims who have drowned in a beachside escape rooms. Was this simply a tragic accident or has there been foul play? There is an unresolved relationship between one of the victims, Ellis Bravery, and the owner of the escape rooms. Years previously, Ellis had been released with a seemingly airtight alibi from the attack on Mickey Delaney who was beaten and fell to the bottom of the quarry where her friendship group met. No one saw anyone else at the scene and Mickey’s brother is desperate to solve her case and is still convinced that Ellis Bravery escaped justice for his sister’s appalling injuries and subsequent coma.

Characters are carefully crafted and plot lines are cleverly developed to draw the reader into the story, so the reader is still guessing the denouement right to the story’s end. This novel is an excellent example of the importance of character development and plotting and without Daisy’s excellent attention to detail and research skills the different threads of this story wouldn’t hang together quite so brilliantly and seamlessly.

Daisy’s psychological crime series are excellent and this novel is my favourite – it’s just such a tight read, absolutely believable and a brilliant twist.