Novelicious.com | The Women's Fiction Blog for Readers and Writers

My Book Deal Moment by Louise Walters

My agent, Hannah Ferguson, sent my novel Mrs Sinclair’s Suitcase out to eight publishers in May 2012 and one by one, they rejected it. One editor was interested and we got as far as meeting up in London. It was an exciting moment and she had lots of editorial suggestions for me, which I went home and worked on … only to find that, for me, some of the ideas were not quite right. I would have ended up with a very different story from the one I was trying to write. Some of the ideas were great, and I did use one or two of them, so it was a useful meeting and I’m grateful for the input from that editor. It just wasn’t quite the perfect match I think we writers need.

Undeterred, because you can never be deterred in publishing, Hannah submitted my novel to another batch of editors in September 2012. This time around, things sounded more hopeful – there were no rejection e-mails within days. Hannah did e-mail me to say a couple of editors were interested and it was the kind of novel they were looking for.

This Week In Books – Our Favourite Links of the Week

When a new app promises to have you reading over 1,000 words a minute, you’re skeptical. right? We were until we tried it. What do you think of Spritz?

The cast of Harry Potter singing Taylor Swift is pretty magical, but we like the clapping Professor Snape gif even more.

An excellent post on books you should read now based on your childhood favourites.

Agent Wishlist Week – Lizzy Kremer of David Higham Associates

Lizzy Kremer is head of the books department at David Higham Associates, where she has been a literary agent for ten years. Lizzy represents lots of our favourite authors including Lucy Robinson, Ali Harris, Rowan Coleman and Lucy Diamond.

I am open to reading and loving any novel. I don't have many preconceptions about what I will and won't enjoy. I love unself-conscious, direct storytelling styles –  books which shoot straight for the heart and have a strong point-of-view. My favourite novel ever is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys. I love books about the female experience, whether they're love stories, thrillers or literary fiction. They could be set in the past, the present or the future. There probably won't be any aliens on-scene though.

Five Perfect Paperweights

Paperweights have gone out of fashion somewhat. Now that we write, work and read using our computers and tablets and phones, we no longer have great piles of paper cluttering our desks. At least that's the theory. I don't know about you, but I still manage to spawn drifts of the stuff. Post-it notes, which have lost their stickiness, lists scribbled on scrap paper, printed pages for hard-copy editing, articles torn from magazines and newspapers, and, of course, towering piles of books. A paperweight is just the thing for keeping papers from flowing off your desk and onto the floor and they're also quite good for gazing at while you're trying to think of your next brilliant plot twist.   

1. This personalised paperweight features a circus-style letter printed onto a vintage dictionary page, encased in a 7cm round glass dome. The paperweight is handmade in Sussex and ships with a pouch and gift box. It's available from Ellie Ellie and priced £24.50.

2. When dealing with your emails seems too dull for words, play with this lovely brass compass instead. Avast, me hearties! £35 from Not On The High Street. 

Friday Book Giveaway! Perfect by Rachel Joyce

Rachel Joyce wooed us with her debut novel, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, and her second book sounds just as good. Today, we have a copy of the newly released Perfect by Rachel Joyce to give away. 

Summer, 1972: In the claustrophobic heat, eleven-year-old Byron and his friend begin 'Operation Perfect', a hapless mission to rescue Byron's mother from impending crisis.

Review – A Hundred Pieces of Me by Lucy Dillon

Reviewed by Kelly Allen

Gina is in her early 30s, lives in the most beautiful house and runs her own business, but as Christmas approaches, she discovers her husband is having an affair. Gina’s husband, Stuart, has been there for her when it mattered most. When she was diagnosed with breast cancer, he stood by her and went to every appointment, dutifully making notes and asking the right questions, but once the treatment was over and Gina appeared to be well again, the truth of their relationship came to the surface. They were just very good friends, nothing more.

After the bombshell, Gina moves into her newly acquired flat and begins thinking about the simplicity of life. She clears out anything she doesn’t need and starts forming a list of one hundred important things she can keep in her new home. During this personal transformation, Gina also temporarily fosters a dog called Buzz, who gives her the companionship she truly requires whilst her heart mends.

Whilst Gina’s new life unfolds, she is offered a role to manage a restoration project – on her very own dream house – for a couple planning to live there once it is complete. Alongside mending an old house, starting a new life and earning Buzz’s trust, Gina finds the strength to face her past and move forward.

Welcome to The Novelicious Book Club!

Novelicious has been at the centre of the women’s fiction community for years, reviewing countless books along the way. That said, as much as we love curling up and reading by ourselves, we kind of want to read books with you, too!

For us, there’s nothing better than having a group of pals reading the same book at the same time. You can lament over sudden plot twists and subsequent 4am reading sessions on a work night, swoon and whoop together when the hero finally kisses the heroine and have lively, thoughtful discussions once you’ve turned the last page.

Sound good? Yes?

Welcome to The Novelicious Book Club!

Liz Nugent's Top Five Writing Tips

Liz Nugent has written live tv drama, soap operas, radio dramas and a children’s animation series, but her very first novel, Unravelling Oliver, will be published in March. We'll be reviewing it here soon. Today, Liz has given us her top five writing tips. 

1. Get off Facebook, Twitter and all social media. It is a massive waste of time. It’s too late for me. I am addicted, but save yourselves while you still can.

2. Read more books. They don’t have to be works of great literature. Read the kind of books you’d like to write.

3. Don’t give up your job to be a writer. If you want to write, you will find the time. Then, if you get published, you can think about a career break.

4. Before you send your manuscript to a publisher or agent, send it to a friend or relative who WILL BE HONEST WITH YOU. Most people who love you will only want to see the good in what you do, but we all have a friend who tells the truth even when it’s painful. Act on their feedback.

5. Don’t be persuaded by any of these tips. Every writer works differently. Find your own way and good luck! And get off the internet now.

Review – The Midnight Rose by Lucinda Riley

Reviewed by Debs Carr

The Midnight Rose spans a century and tells the tale of Anahita Chavan, a young high-born Indian girl who loses her parents and is taken in by a generous and very beautiful Maharani who pays for her education in England alongside her own daughter, Princess Indira. The two girls grow up and their lives take them on very different courses, but one school holiday they are invited to stay at the Astbury Estate where Anahita meets the young heir, Donald. They go on secret early morning rides together across the moors and, although their lives are very different, he leaves a lasting impression on Anahita that will last for the rest of her life.

The book begins with Anahita celebrating her one hundredth birthday. Her family travel to see her and it's then that she calls her young blue-eyed great-grandson, Ari, to one side and entrusts him with her life story that she’s written down over the past fifty years. Although Ari never sees his grandmother again and doesn’t read the story of her lost son for a decade, he embarks on a quest to discover exactly what did happen to Anahita’s son, who supposedly died when he was a toddler. Ari travels to Astbury Hall where Rebecca Bradley, an American film star is playing the role of a beautiful aristocrat. Rebecca is being hounded by the press because of her newly discovered ‘engagement’ to another film star and when Lord Anthony Astbury invites her to stay at the hall to give her a little peace and quiet, she agrees. Ari arrives and rather than his curiosity in the Astbury Estate’s history being something that Lord Anthony is interested in, it seems to disturb him. However, Ari wants to discover the truth and together with Rebecca’s help, he slowly learns about his great-grandmother's life, her connection with this reserved family, and what really happened to her little boy.

Agent Wishlist Week – Clare Wallace of the Darley Anderson Agency

Clare Wallace joined the Darley Anderson Agency in January 2011. Clare is actively scouting for new talent and, as the Head of Rights, she also negotiates deals for translation rights all around the world for all the Agency’s authors.

We receive over 300 submissions a week, and almost all of our authors have been discovered in the slush pile. I would really like to find some more contemporary commercial women’s fiction and I’m also looking for accessible literary general fiction, alongside looking for new children's authors. Whether it’s a picture book text, middle grade, YA or for adults, the voice and characters have to sparkle and the story has to captivate. And I do love an unusual concept.

You can find more information, advice and tips from Claire on the Darley Anderson website www.darleyanderson.com and blog www.darleyandersonblog.com. You can also connect with Clare on Twitter @CPWally

Novelicious Chats To...Jean Goodhind

Jean G Goodhind is the author of Killing Jane Austen, the fourth in the series of the Honey Driver Murder Mysteries published by Accent Press. Today she has popped by to tell us a little bit about her writing and how her haunted Georgian manor house helped inspire her writing.

Where do you find inspiration for your books?

Nutty happenings in the Bath guest house I once owned. Nutty guests, who pointed out that the house was haunted. Of course it was! Did they think I didn’t know that? Even before we moved in, I had a feeling about it. The house dated from 1740, the electricity was ancient, the gas lights quite beautiful and very 1890s. In 1984, my husband and I bought an eight-bedroomed Georgian manor house and four-roomed coach house on the outskirts of Bath to convert into a guest house. My theory is that when we started renovating the old place, it didn’t initially go down well with the spirits.

The footsteps along the landing came as a complete surprise to my husband – a total sceptic back then – though not now! We also heard children laughing in one of the rooms. When we tore off the old panelling in that room revealed walls covered in early Victorian wallpaper. And things went missing; the items finally found where you KNEW you hadn’t left them. Once I had two French girls staying; I had moved them from a small room with a double bed into a bigger one with two singles. The next morning they requested to move back to their original room because they did not like the ‘gentleman who came out of the wardrobe’.

Review – Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich

Reviewed by Jennifer Joyce

Thirty two year old Holly Brennan has never been slim, but her weight escalated when she turned to food after the death of her husband, Bruce. Holly is still trying to come to terms with losing her husband when she meets Logan Montgomery. He is fit and gorgeous and offers to help Holly. As a personal trainer to the stars, Logan can help Holly battle her weight and tackle her issues with food. Holly isn’t Logan’s type at all; he usually goes for tall, slim blondes with model looks, but as Holly proves her determination in the gym and starts to shed the pounds, Logan is drawn to her.

Big Girl Panties got off to a really good start for me. I liked the writing style and Holly is a smart, sassy and quick-witted young woman. Holly hasn’t had the best start in life and is now a widow at a tragically young age, which she attempts to mask with humour. I warmed to her straight away and knew she was going to be a strong main character. Logan, on the other hand, doesn’t get off to such a good start, but that is the whole point of his journey. Before he meets Holly, Logan is judgemental and motivated by looks and status, but she soon begins to transform his opinions. While Holly starts to change physically, Logan’s change happens internally. I would have liked to have had a bit more time to see Logan’s transformation, because he’s still learning the errors of his ways and behaving superficially for the majority of the book, which made it difficult to trust him and warm to him completely. I would have liked to have seen Logan prove himself as worthy for Holly, rather than the quick fix that happens.

Novelicious Natters – Autism in Fiction: Opening Our Eyes to a New Way of Thinking

Reading Graeme Simsion's The Rosie Project sparked something in me that made the book an absolute delight. There is something about finding a novel where the author taps into a completely different way of thinking that just grips me and Don Tillman certainly looks at life in a different way to most. Simsion himself says: 'Wherever he [Don] goes, he creates disruption and humour – and perhaps gets us to consider other ways of looking at familiar situations and behaviour.'

When describing him to friends (and telling them how badly they needed this book in their lives!), I described him as a combination of Christopher from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time and Sherlock Holmes – brilliant, clever, socially awkward and often wildly inappropriate. There is something so charming and captivating, after all, about a character who says things the way he sees them, who cannot comprehend phrases like 'water under the bridge' (what bridge?). There is brutal honesty and, in that, Simsion finds romance, which is just as honest and completely intoxicating.

Of course, Simsion isn't the first author to explore this different way of seeing the world. Mark Haddon did it with The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time without actually labelling it as Aspergers or Autism. He simply wanted to explore that different mindset and, in doing so, opened up the reader's perspective at the same time. I should know, the book changed my life!

Agent Wishlist Week – Rowan Lawton of Furniss Lawton

Rowan Lawton is here to share her manuscript wishlist today. A literary agent and the co-founder of Furniss Lawton – the literary division of the James Grant Group – Rowan represents writers of both fiction and non-fiction and her taste is wide-ranging. Current fiction clients include a number of debut novelists and contemporary women’s fiction authors including Novelicious award-winner Emylia Hall, author of The Book of Summers, a Richard & Judy 2012 Book Club selection, and Lindsey Kelk, whose most recent novel, I Heart Christmas, was a Sunday Times Bestseller. Over to you, Rowan.

I’m always on the look-out for a gem in the slush pile and would love to see submissions from Novelicious readers. See our website for the specific guidelines of how to submit to me and do mention in your covering letter that you’re getting in touch after reading this.

I love women’s fiction in all its guises – from contemporary romance and romantic comedy to psychological thrillers and wider reading group fiction. Here are three specific areas in which I’m very keen to find new writers. It goes without saying that I love the writing and novels of authors I currently represent. Therefore, in the main part I’m going to use other books and writers who I don’t work with to give you a feel for my taste.

Contemporary romance/ romantic comedy – I like a bit of edge to my romance novels, whether that be a really distinctive voice or the way in which you write about sex. ideally, in this area, I am looking for books with a British or Irish female central character. If you’re trying to make me laugh, I want it to be so funny that I spit some tea out while reading (which is what happens when I read Lucy-Anne Holmes and Lucy Robinson). I want to really identify with the emotional life of the protagonist, I love it when a novel hits on a nubby moral or emotional issue. My client Nicola Doherty does this wonderfully in both of her novels and others authors I really admire particularly for this quality are Jojo Moyes, Stella Newman (with Pear Shaped) and Gemma Burgess (in A Girl Like You) .