March 2019 - Author Rosie Travers

Comfort Reading with CJ Sutton

Posted on March 18, 2019 | by Rosie Travers | Leave a Comment

Continuing the international theme this week I am joined by Australian author C J Sutton. C J writes horror/psychological thrillers, so his take on ‘comfort’ reading could be very interesting!

Hi Rosie,

Thanks for hosting me on your blog. When I think of comfort reads, I think of books that allow me to escape everyday life on such a level that they may inspire me to try something new, visit a different location or research an interesting topic.

Here are my top 5 comfort reads:

The Beach by Alex Garland

This book instilled my desire to travel. This desire has since waned as I’ve hit my thirties with more responsibility, but The Beach is written in a way that has one assessing their thirst for adventure. I first read The Beach when I was in my early twenties, and the narration style of the writer and the personality of the protagonist quickly drew me in. I pictured someone not too different from me, searching for something so far away from everyday life that one must physically look for it. The idea of finding a secluded haven untouched by technology and the eye of the public is a pipedream you can enjoy here, on your couch, without all the risks that befall poor Richard.

Low Men in Yellow Coats by Stephen King

I always enjoyed writing to some degree, but this book made me want to dedicate my life to becoming an author. This short story is found in Stephen King’s compilation book which has some of his lesser known works that became popular movies, such as Shawshank Redemption. But Low Men in Yellow Coats, more commonly referred to as Hearts in Atlantis starring Sir Anthony Hopkins, manages to balance a love of books with the wonder all children possess. There is a side of King’s horror in the background, but this story thrives with a young boy learning how to survive in a small town. My favourite King story, even if the film didn’t do it justice.

Fallow by Daniel Shand

Here is possibly the best representation of why exploring the relationships between family members can venture deeper than any other topic. Two brothers are hiding in the wilderness after one is released from jail, and while living out of a tent they regularly enter towns for a beer and socialisation. We are led by an unreliable narrator for a reason, and all is revealed in the book’s shocking conclusion. But the interplay between brothers is realistic, raw and emotional. Despite the Scottish backdrop, the road-trip style and the fun dialogue, it is their relationship that makes the book a remarkable read. I explore this theme in my own stories, and here is the benchmark.

Gone series by Michael Grant

Being able to enjoy a sci-fi series not intended for my age bracket is a guilty pleasure. Gone is the story of a suburb being shut off from the rest of the world, as children under the age of fifteen develop powers beneath a giant dome and everyone older than fifteen just disappears. Some would call it teenage X-Men, but the series is so much more than powers and battles. It’s Lord of the Flies with higher stakes. There were six books in the first series, and such was the impact on the author that we now have another series of three books set after the conclusion of the original story. But at its heart, this is a story about teenagers trying to find their place in the world, taking on the role of parents and trying to keep each other safe against the unnatural threats developing underground. I smashed this series and would do so again. To me it has a nostalgic feel I only really get when watching a movie from my childhood.

Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts

A big book with big ideas, Shantaram is a sprawling tale across India that was written in jail by a man who either has a great imagination or has led a truly interesting life. Gangs, war, drugs, love and philosophy are explored with a cast of unique characters and the swelter of an accurate Indian portrayal. Weeks can be lost in this giant tome of a book, the scenarios all-encompassing and shocking. Perhaps the reason I associate Shantaram with comfort reading is that I carried it with my during my trek through South East Asia and found a relaxing spot to read at every pause. But I am also inspired by this writer’s willingness to succeed, as he wrote this manuscript in full multiple times only for the guards to throw it away. He started again and again, and this is the result.

About CJ

CJ Sutton is a writer based in Melbourne, Australia. He holds a Masters in journalism and creative writing, and supports the value of study through correspondence. His fictional writing delves into the unpredictability of the human mind and the fears that drive us.

This Strange Hell by C. J. Sutton –

A suited man runs from a burning tower in Melbourne as bodies rain down upon him.

Before the city’s millions can compose, he boards a train into the countryside. Hiding his identity and changing his appearance, the man finds his way to Sulley Ridge, a lawless town in the heart of the harsh Victorian outback.

The following day, a burned man wakes up in a hospital bed. Surging with rage, he speaks a name. Within an hour, the suited man’s face is across every screen in the country. It’s the greatest manhunt Australia has ever seen.

But as he tries to camouflage in Sulley Ridge, he soon realises the town has its own problems. Under the iron fist of a violent leader, the locals are trapped within slow and torturous decay…

As we learn more about the night of the burning tower, the connection between the suited man and the burned man threatens to leave a trail of destruction across the state.

Here is the story of a man on the run from his past, as the line between sanity and evil is danced upon.

Here is the tale of This Strange Hell.

mybook.to/thisstrangehell

http://www.cjsutton-author.com/

https://www.facebook.com/cjsutton.author

https://twitter.com/c_j_sutton

https://www.instagram.com/c.j.sutton/

Thanks to CJ for taking part.

Comfort Reading – Guest Tom Halford

Posted on March 11, 2019 | by Rosie Travers | Leave a Comment

This week I’m heading across the Atlantic to meet Canadian author Tom Halford. Tom lives in Newfoundland where I suspect the chilly winters provide ample opportunity for comfort reading!

Thanks for having me on your blog, Rosie. I really appreciate it.

When I think of my favourite comfort reads, I always think of the bildungsroman. The bildungsroman is roughly defined as the novel of development, and these types of books usually focus on a younger person coming of age.

Here are my top five comfort reads.

Of Human Bondage W Somerset Maugham

When I started reading this book, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. I can remember sitting in my parents’ basement over the Christmas holidays. There was this dusty, smelly red-orange chair that I had stuffed into my bedroom. This was where I befriended Philip Carey, Maugham’s protagonist, who has to come to terms with the fact that he will never become a professional artist. He chooses a more practical path and becomes a doctor. This book had a strange effect on me. Even though the conclusion was ultimately about choosing to be practical, Maugham’s style and character development led me to be even more obsessed with writing novels. I come from a family where almost everyone is a dentist (this sounds like a joke, but it’s true). After reading this book, I knew that had to at least try to be a writer. If I became dentist, I worried that I’d never really be happy.

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens

Where was I when I read this book? I believe I was staying at my parents’ camp while I worked at a nearby campground on Lake George, New Brunswick. This was one book that I didn’t want to end. There are a number of parallels between Philip Carey and David Copperfield. Both of them lose their mother at a young age. Both meet a host of characters both good and bad. I’m not sure why I was so drawn to these two books. I don’t have much in common with either hero, but they’re both great company, and they were my very good friends for a little while.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, JK Rowling

By the time I read the Harry Potter series, I was finally out of my parents’ house. My wife and I even own our own house now!

Currently, I end up driving everyone to where they need to be and am in our van for roughly an hour and a half each day. In the fall, I listened to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in the van on a loaned copy from the library. Harry Potter is an incredible main character, and each one of the supporting characters are entertaining in their own way. Hagrid has to be one of the most likeable characters in any novel that I’ve read. I’m a big fan of Rowling as an author for a bunch of different reasons, but I’m stunned as to her ability to write so well in multiple genres. The Cormorant Strike series is another one of my favourite comfort reads, but I’m not including it in this list because it would be difficult to argue that it is a bildungsroman.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Samuel Pepys

On that note, I’m going to argue that The Diary of Samuel Pepys can be considered a bildungsroman. It’s not a novel but a series of diary entries spanning from 1660 to 1669, so I’ll lose the battle in relation to the “roman” of bildungsroman. However, it is a book where the reader gets to see a clear development in Pepys. These developments are not always better for Pepys on a personal level. His relationship with his wife becomes increasingly strained, but he advances considerably in his professional life. So, even in relation to “bildungs”, I’m on shaky ground as well.

I don’t care though. I love Pepys. Of any literary figure, Pepys is the most alive to me. I feel as though I have gone back in time between 1660-1669 and hung out with him. This was at a lonely time for me, before I’d met my wife (yes, I also read The Diary of Samuel Pepys in my parents’ basement), and reading about Pepys’s life was one of my most comforting reads.

Mean Boy, Lynn Coady

Lynn Coady’s Mean Boy is more of a kunstlerroman (artist novel) than a bildungsroman, but I’m being loose with my definitions here so leave me alone. Of any book in this list, Mean Boy was one where I could closely relate to the narrator. Coady’s novel is set at a small university in Atlantic Canada, and it’s about an English major who is learning that his literary heroes are also fallible human beings. When I discovered Mean Boy, I had finally moved out of my parents’ house to a city about an hour away. I was reaching a point in my life where many bildungsroman end. I was the young, main character leaving the nest. Finding Mean Boy and spending time with the narrator Lawrence Campbell was important to me at the time. I don’t know if I’ve learned as much from any other book.

The comfort that I find in the bildungsroman genre is that the main character usually becomes a friend. I learn about his or her life from a young age, the struggles and the successes. In a way, I feel like Philip Carey, David Copperfield, Harry Potter, Samuel Pepys, and Lawrence Campbell are more than characters; they are good friends who I knew very well for a short period of time.

About Tom

Tom Halford lives with his family in Newfoundland, Canada. His novels are are set in New York State, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada. He writes comedy and crime fiction.

He maintains a Twitter page: twitter.com/tomhalfordnovel
And he maintains a Youtube account: youtube.com/user/CyrilTrout

Tom’s debut novel Deli Meat is published by Crooked Cat Books and available on Amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Deli-Meat-Tom-Halford-ebook/dp/B07FF5ZDKW/

Thanks to Tom for sharing his choices and an education. The theme of finding friendship amongst characters will resonate with many readers and writers, and ‘Bildungsroman’ is definitely the word of the day!

Itchy Feet & Itchy Fingers

Posted on March 4, 2019 | by Rosie Travers | 2 Comments

Last week we moved house.

Anyone who knows me well will know that I am a bit of a serial house mover. Stay in one place too long and I get itchy feet. This was actually our 11^th house move in ten years and yes that does mean that in some years we’ve moved more than once (in 2012 we moved three times). In theory I should be getting good at it. I pack boxes like a professional – but I don’t think we’ve made one house move yet where something hasn’t been mislaid along the way. In this house move – it was most definitely my writing mojo that got lost. The stress of securing a buyer, then the stress of not losing our buyer, and finally the stress of not finding a property we wanted to buy, seemed to cancel out every ounce of creativity. A new novel just wasn’t happening.

We made the decision to go into short term rented, which isn’t without its own inherent problems, and the date of our actual move, dictated by our buyers, couldn’t have been worse – just a week after the launch date for Your Secret’s Safe With Me. Just before the launch date I hit on this brilliant new idea for a potential third book. In fact it was so brilliant, I abandoned the stilted 10K words I’d eeked out over the last few months, and wrote a totally new 10K words in a matter of days.

Do you ever have that feeling where an idea is just beyond your grasp? It’s as if you have a glimpse of something but it’s not fully formed, something on the periphery of your vision, and then all of sudden it’s a solid mass, within reach. That was what this rush of creativity felt like. It was also a relief. The muse was back, I wasn’t going to be permanently muted – but then the curse of the house move struck again because boxes needed to be packed; practicalities took over and the tap so recently switched on was turned off again. The flow of words halted.

We’ve been in our new temporary home for a week, but when I sat down at my desk this morning it was an ‘and breathe’ moment. We haven’t done a great deal of unpacking – no point when we’re not planning on staying put. Half the furniture sits in the garage and some has been sacrificed to fend for itself in the garden (although this has created a very useful outdoor writing space). But the one saving grace is that the next move is not yet on the cards, and I can’t wait to pick up where I left off on the WIP. New characters have already appeared in my head, a new plot twist. My fingers are itching to get tapping away on that broken keyboard (yes something inevitably also gets broken in every house move – this time a foot broke off the keyboard and a leg fell of an IKEA wardrobe. The IKEA wardrobe is now propped up on a brick, the keyboard on a wad of paper.) When we finally get to the dream house it’ll all get repaired – or replaced. The good thing is work on my next novel doesn’t need a dream home before it gets restored. I can start now.