Discover a New Author

An interesting blog-post caught my eye the other day: “I can’t find anything to read!” wailed the writer. When I mentioned this at my writers’ group they collapsed with laughter and frank disbelief. Can’t find anything to read? The internet’s bursting with books.

Well, yes. What the blogger meant was that she had difficulty locating anything she wanted to read – swamped by the enormous amount of choice. She has a point. If you’re happy to stay with the writers you know and love it’s easy to find their latest books – but if you want something different, how on earth do you track down something you’ll enjoy with so much on offer? That’s what search engines are for, of course, but you can’t really search for ‘something different that I’ll like’.

I was thinking about this when one of my books was accepted for the Books for Older Readers website. This sort of site is one way to narrow down the vast choice. The books it showcases have all been chosen because they might appeal to the 50+ age group. Some of them have older protagonists, or deal with the issues we all face in later life. Some are written by older writers, so it’s the perspective that appeals, rather than the subject matter. I’ve read one or two of them myself, already, and I’m looking forward to reading more.

So if you fall within the age group – or even if you don’t –  pop over to Books for Older Readers and have a browse. You can have a chat with the writers via the Books for Older Readers Facebook page, too, if you wish. You never know – your new favourite author might be waiting there for you to discover.

 

Whales and Strange Stars (now featuring on Books for Older Readers website!)

What’s it about? A sea captain passes through the forgotten port of Wych Ferry, and whiles away an hour relating his traveller’s tales to young Rosamund Euden. He tells her that the stars are different, if you sail far enough, that the horizon isn’t quite real, not when you get there; he speaks of sea serpents and whales, and mysterious islands. To an impressionable girl who has never left her home, the whales and strange stars of his stories come to symbolise the great outside world she longs to see. The sea captain moves on, unaware of the dramatic events he has set in action as Rosamund’s search for adventure leads her into a world of dangerous secrets in the marshlands of eighteenth century Kent. Torn between loyalty to her uncles, and her desire to discover what lies beyond the marshes, Rosamund seeks help from an unexpected source. But who can she really trust?

Reviews

‘I really enjoyed this very different read…   It’s a fascinating story filled with interesting characters.’

‘The sense of place is perfectly captured, and the writing just dances off the page. Highly recommended.’

‘I loved the way in which the author made the period and the setting come so alive in this book.’

‘Combining history with fantasy the lyrical prose flows across the pages. The plot ripples and twists just as a river eddies.’

‘It’s quite a unique type of book that meanders along like the ebb and flow of the river tides in the book.’

Not only ivy grows on old walls

I guess it’s a little unusual for a garden wall to give a writer an idea for a novel. But that’s just what happened to me. And this is how I used it: the young heroine of my book Whales and Strange Stars, is gathering windfalls in the orchard – and accidentally overhears an odd conversation taking place on the riverbank nearby. The tall orchard wall stands in between, so she can listen unseen. This eavesdropping becomes a habit, with alarming consequences.

Moorings at Grove Ferry – and the old wall

Wait a moment, you say. Is this a real wall you’re talking about? The answer is yes. And no. It was a real wall, once upon a time, and you can see it in my photos just beyond the moored boats – and the tops of the trees in the old orchard behind it, too. This was our old mooring at Grove Ferry, in Kent, as it was about fifty years ago – a place I knew down to the last little plant growing under the landing-stage. So naturally I used it in the story. I picture the fictitious Belle Isle moored here, on the brink of the open marshes and in the shadow of the old wall. Many of the crucial moments of the story happen just here in a place that was intensely important to me when I was young. It still is – but only as a figment of memory and imagination.

At the moorings, with the old wall on the right. The girl in the boat is me!

The wall itself is long gone – demolished – and you would struggle to recognise the same spot today. I have stood just there in recent years and been unable to tell exactly where the mooring was, or where the old wall ran. It is all part of a riverside pub garden now, and I don’t mind admitting that the longing to see it once again as it was in our happy family boating days is intense. The world moves on, of course, and the only way I can preserve these well-remembered and beloved details is to incorporate them into the fictional Wych Ferry of my story. So the old wall, the orchard and the mooring place all play their parts season by season, just as they did when I knew them for real.

Perhaps it’s the job of the older person to preserve and mythologise the past in this way, and I’ve done my best. So you see, not only ivy grows on old walls – sometimes books do, too.

 

Whales and Strange Stars, published by Crooked Cat Books

What’s it about? A sea captain passes through the forgotten port of Wych Ferry, and whiles away an hour relating his traveller’s tales to young Rosamund Euden. He tells her that the stars are different, if you sail far enough, that the horizon isn’t quite real, not when you get there; he speaks of sea serpents and whales, and mysterious islands. To an impressionable girl who has never left her home, the whales and strange stars of his stories come to symbolise the great outside world she longs to see. The sea captain moves on, unaware of the dramatic events he has set in action as Rosamund’s search for adventure leads her into a world of dangerous secrets in the marshlands of eighteenth century Kent. Torn between loyalty to her uncles, and her desire to discover what lies beyond the marshes, Rosamund seeks help from an unexpected source. But who can she really trust?

Reviews

‘I really enjoyed this very different read…   It’s a fascinating story filled with interesting characters.’

‘The sense of place is perfectly captured, and the writing just dances off the page. Highly recommended.’

‘I loved the way in which the author made the period and the setting come so alive in this book.’

‘Combining history with fantasy the lyrical prose flows across the pages. The plot ripples and twists just as a river eddies.’

‘It’s quite a unique type of book that meanders along like the ebb and flow of the river tides in the book.’

Spotlighting Whales and Strange Stars by Kathy Sharp

Linda's Book Bag

I was so intrigued by the title of Kathy Sharp’s novel, Whales and Strange Stars, that although I didn’t have time to read it I was desperate to be part of the Brook Cottage Books tour and find out more.

Having spent my working life advocating that teachers and students should read as writers and write as readers, I’m also delighted to be sharing Kathy’s post explaining which other authors have influenced her work.

Published by Crooked Cat Books on 12th December 2017, Whales and Strange Stars is available for purchase from your local Amazon site.

Whales and Strange Stars

A sea captain passes through the forgotten port of Wych Ferry, and whiles away an hour relating his traveller’s tales to young Rosamund Euden. He tells her that the stars are different, if you sail far enough, that the horizon isn’t quite real, not when you get there; he…

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A Tale of the Riverbank

Tags

boats, Grove_Ferry, Kent, riverbank, writing

It’s nothing unusual for me to be inspired to write by a place. I do it all the time. But the place that inspired Whales and Strange Stars has been waiting a very long time – half a century, in fact – for me to write the book it deserves.

Grove Ferry, as I remember it in 1966.

In the book I call it Wych Ferry, but the real place is called Grove Ferry. It is still there, of course, changed to some degree over time, as you would expect, but essentially the same, still the quiet, beautiful mooring for small boats that I knew so well all those years ago. Many of the trees I loved are gone – but some still stand, a little more gnarled; buildings I knew have been demolished and some replaced. But there is much that I easily recognise when I visit these days, including and especially, the soupy green old river that I used to row a little boat on, whose native birds and flowers were so familiar to me. It all coloured and flavoured the story.

The same view: Grove Ferry, 2016.

And so did my other happy experiences with boats on that river. When I send the fictional Belle Isle floating downriver propelled by nothing but the ebbing tide, I know it can work because I’ve done it myself. We often let our little cruisers float downstream like that – it was the most peaceful and natural way to travel and to learn the moods and movement of the river.

Although I have set the story in the eighteenth century (I can’t actually remember back that far!), much of it is created from my memories. Not so much the detail, to be honest – after all, I’m recalling the 1960s –  as the general feeling of life in such a sleepy riverside place, where nature and the changing seasons hold so much sway, where time can pass so surprisingly slowly.

The story of Whales and Strange Stars contains adventure and excitement and danger (all figments of my imagination), but at its heart it’s a tale of the riverbank, a dreamy reminiscence of times long past and much longed-for in the present. I can only hope I’ve done them justice.

 

Whales and Strange Stars, published by Crooked Cat Books on 16 January

What’s it about? A sea captain passes through the forgotten port of Wych Ferry, and whiles away an hour relating his traveller’s tales to young Rosamund Euden. He tells her that the stars are different, if you sail far enough, that the horizon isn’t quite real, not when you get there; he speaks of sea serpents and whales, and mysterious islands. To an impressionable girl who has never left her home, the whales and strange stars of his stories come to symbolise the great outside world she longs to see. The sea captain moves on, unaware of the dramatic events he has set in action as Rosamund’s search for adventure leads her into a world of dangerous secrets in the marshlands of eighteenth century Kent. Torn between loyalty to her uncles, and her desire to discover what lies beyond the marshes, Rosamund seeks help from an unexpected source. But who can she really trust?

What do the reviewers say?

‘I really enjoyed this very different read…   It’s a fascinating story filled with interesting characters.’

‘The sense of place is perfectly captured, and the writing just dances off the page. Highly recommended.’

‘I loved the way in which the author made the period and the setting come so alive in this book.’

‘Combining history with fantasy the lyrical prose flows across the pages. The plot ripples and twists just as a river eddies.’

‘It’s quite a unique type of book that meanders along like the ebb and flow of the river tides in the book.’

Where can I buy it? I thought you’d never ask. Right here

Book review: Whales and Strange Stars, Kathy Sharp

Another lovely review for Whales and Strange Stars

Jennifer C. Wilson

Today, I’m thrilled to share my review of Whales and Strange Stars, by fellow Cat, Kathy Sharp, as part of her blog tour.

Series: First book in my new Wych Ferry Series

Genre: historical fiction

Release Date: 12^th December, 2017

Publisher: Crooked Cat Books

A world beyond her own. A sea captain passes through the forgotten port of Wych Ferry, and whiles away an hour relating his traveller’s tales to young Rosamund Euden. He tells her that the stars are different, if you sail far enough, that the horizon isn’t quite real, not when you get there; he speaks of sea serpents and whales, and mysterious islands. To an impressionable girl who has never left her home, the whales and strange stars of his stories come to symbolise the great outside world she longs to see. The sea captain moves on, unaware of the dramatic events he has set in…

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