I am delighted to welcome seven amazing writers to my blog today. They got together to produce a box set which will only be on sale for twelve weeks.
Over to you:
Why we got together
Over to you:
Why we got together
Orna:
Jessica Bell is one of my favourite authors and one of my favourite people. And
the idea behind the collective she wanted to gather -- independent-minded,
unconventional authors offering page-turning fiction about independent-minded,
unconventional women - was irresistible. I hope the success of this project
will encourage other writers who believe in their own work to collaborate and
experiment together. The calibre of this collective meant I never doubted we'd
put together a great book; what I didn't anticipate is that we'd have such
great fun doing it. Indie authors rock!
Roz: For me, these writers are the real superstars of self-publishing.
They're storytellers dedicated to their craft, who have proved their worth with
awards, fellowships and, of course, commercial success. Each author here is in
charge of her own artistic destiny, embracing the indie path as a statement of
integrity, yet writing fiction that speaks to everybody. I'm utterly proud to
be included.
Kathleen: I’m
loving the idea of being with a group of women writers whose work I like and
respect. Also intrigued by the contrasts and resonances that are set up when
you put seven very different books and authors together. You know your work is
going to be read by readers who wouldn't normally have bought it. There’s an
edge to that - are they going to like it? Hate it? It’s very exciting.
Jane:
Quite aside from the collaborating with a truly inspirational – and
international - team of women writers, I’m really excited about the opportunity
to showcase the diversity of writing that falls under the general fiction labels,
‘contemporary fiction’or ‘literary fiction’ for example. I am rather fond of
Joanne Harris’ comment that she doesn't like to insult her readers by assuming
they only like to read one type of fiction. We will not be insulting any
readers. Within this set of seven books, we offer the full spectrum from light (although
never frothy) to darker, more haunting reads that delve into deeper
psychological territory.
Joni: Indie publishing is the new high ground for literary
fiction. Maybe this is a US thing, but publishers here have gotten more and
more gutless and lit fiction is getting very much of an ilk. Authors are
pressured by agents and editors into tropes and style that sell -- and that's
not a healthy state for the artists individually or the art form at large.
Readers will find the true artistic risk takers and creative outliers in the
indie world, where we captain our own fate - as artists must.
Carol: This is a small group of acclaimed indie authors whose work
I hold in the highest regard. I love their varied ways of telling a story, and
what each of them has to say about the lives of women. What unites the writers
is their desire to craft their fiction to be the best it can be. This set of books
will be thought-provoking and hugely entertaining. I’m thrilled to be part of
it.
Blue Mercy by Orna Ross
Will you side with mother or daughter?
When Mercy Mulcahy was 40 years old, she was
accused of killing her elderly and tyrannical father. Now, at the end of her
life, she has written a book about what really happened on that fateful night
of Christmas Eve, 1989.
The tragic and beautiful Mercy has devoted her
life to protecting Star, especially from the father whose behaviour so blighted
her own life. Yet Star vehemently resists reading her manuscript. Why? What is
Mercy hiding? Was her father's death, as many believe, an assisted suicide?
Or something even more sinister?
Crazy for Trying by Joni Rodgers
This brave debut novel by bestselling author Joni
Rodgers, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection and a
Discover Award finalist.
Seeking to
escape the shadow of her infamous mother—a radical lesbian poet who is larger
than life, even in death—Tulsa Bitters, zaftig, bookish and freshly orphaned,
takes a westbound train, determined to reinvent herself. She gets a job as a
late-night disc jockey at a radio station in Helena, Montana. It’s 1979, and
people aren’t accustomed to hearing a woman’s voice on the radio, but for
Tulsa, far away from all the people who loved and hurt her, midnight
rock’n’roll feels like home. Painfully aware that she’ll never be beautiful,
she discovers the benefits of being invisible.
Michael White Wolf MacPeters, half Blackfoot,
half raging Irish, hears her voice on the radio and finds himself on the phone
with her one night. The conversation evolves, smart, funny, and full of
compassion, and Mac begins a careful courtship, her voice in his ear, his voice
in hers. Despite the baggage of his damaged past—from the suicide of his half-breed
mother to his own bloody passage in Vietnam—Mac allows himself to believe it
could work, but the unlikely romance is cause for horror among Tulsa’s friends
and Mac’s drinking buddies.
With
love-struck energy and sharp-tongued tenacity, Rodgers loads up a tight circle
of lovers, adversaries, dysfunctional family members and comically flawed
friends, driving them down a fresh road through hard-earned love, a dangerous
western solitude, and the old sexual politics.
My Memories of a Future Life by
Roz Morris
If you were somebody’s past life…What echoes
would you leave in their soul?
Could they
be the answers you need now?
It’s a
question Carol never expected to face. She’s a gifted musician who needs
nothing more than her piano and certainly doesn’t believe she’s lived before.
But forced by injury to stop playing, she fears her life may be over. Enter her
soulmate Andreq: healer, liar, fraud and loyal friend. Is he her future
incarnation or a psychological figment? And can his story help her discover how
to live now? A novel in the vein of The Time Traveller’s Wife, Vertigo and The
Gargoyle, My Memories of a Future Life is much more than a 'who was I' tale.
It’s a provocative study of the shadows we don’t know are driving our lives,
from our own pasts and from the people with us right now. An examination of
what we believe, what we create and how we scare and heal each other.
Above all, it’s the story of how one lost soul
searches for where she now belongs.
The Centauress by Kathleen Jones
Bereaved biographer Alex Forbes goes to
war-ravaged Croatia to research the life of celebrity artist Zenobia de
Braganza and finds herself at the centre of a family conflict over a disputed
inheritance. At the Kaštela Visoko Alex uncovers a mutilated photograph, stolen
letters and a story of indeterminate gender, passion and betrayal. But can she
believe what she is being told? In order to discover the truth about Zenobia,
Alex travels to Istria, Venice, New York and London and, in working through the
narrative of Zenobia’s life, Alex begins to make sense of her own and finds joy
and love in a new relationship.
New Thought Provoking Fiction from Award Winning Author, Jane Davis
Mother and daughter: the most precious bond in the world
At six years old, Belinda Brabbage has amassed a wealth of wisdom and
secret worries. She knows all the best hiding places in her Worlds End flat,
how to zap monsters with her pig-shaped torch and that strangers will tempt you
into their cars with offers of Fizzy Fish. Even so, it’s impossible to know how
to behave when you don’t really understand who you are. Mummy doesn’t like to
be plagued with questions about her family but, when she isn’t concentrating,
she lets small nuggets slip, and Belinda collects them all, knowing they are
pieces of a complicated jigsaw.
Exhausted single mother Alison hasn’t been able to picture the future
for some time. Struggling from day to day, the ultimatums she sets herself for
turning her life around slip by. But there is one clock she cannot simply
re-set. Deny it though she may, Belinda is growing up. Having stumbled across
Alison’s portfolio that mapped her life as a prima ballerina, her daughter
already has a clearer idea of who she once was. Soon she’ll be able to work out
for herself who she is - and what she does for a living.
With options running out, Alison travels to London’s suburbs to consult
a blind clairvoyant, who transports her to a past she feels exiled from.
However unlikely they sound, his visions of pelicans and bookshelves appear to
herald change. A chance meeting with an affluent couple affords a glimpse of
the life Alison desperately wants for her daughter. But can their offer of
friendship be trusted?
More 'What Maisie Knew’ than 'Belle de Jour’, Davis’s unflinching new
novel of a mother who turns to prostitution is populated with a deeply flawed
and inimitably human cast, whose tumultuous lives are shored up by
carefully-guarded secrets.
One Night at the Jacaranda by
Carol Cooper
One man dying of
cancer. One struggling journalist. A group of single Londoners. One night that
changes everything.
The trouble with
speed dating is that three minutes can last a lifetime, and ever since he was
diagnosed, Sanjay doesn’t have a lifetime to waste.
Undercover
journalist Harriet is after a by-line, not a boyfriend. She’s a struggling
freelance with a live-in lover, who unexpectedly has to choose between the
comfortable life she knows and a bumpy road that could lead to happiness.
As Laure, Sanjay,
Geoff, Harriet, Karen, Dan and the rest of the bunch discover, it’s not just
about finding someone who’s dynamite between the sheets. It’s about finding
yourself, and that’s not always where you expect.
White Lady by Jessica Bell:
Sonia yearns for sharp objects and blood. But now
that she’s rehabilitating herself as a “normal” mother and mathematics teacher,
it’s time to stop dreaming about slicing people’s throats.
While
being the wife of Melbourne’s leading drug lord and simultaneously dating his
best mate is not ideal, she’s determined to make it work.
It does
work. Until Mia, her lover’s daughter, starts exchanging saliva with her son,
Mick. They plan to commit a crime behind Sonia’s back. It isn’t long before she
finds out and gets involved to protect them.
But is
protecting the kids really Sonia’s motive?
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