Bye!

I've decided to stop writing this blog. When I began my blogs I had the need to write somewhere, anywhere as a creative outlet and as a way of replacing my MA classes.

Now I've found my stride as a 'graduate' writer (i.e. one that doesn't need the support of my classmates) I no longer need them. I've also got so much going on that I can't fully maintain them as they deserve to be.

So, dear reader, this will be my last blog on here. If you'd still like a peek into my brain then follow me on tumblr instead.

Stay happy,

WG x

P.S I'll continue to feature a cat of the week on my tumblr page x

Oh, what a night!

Soooooo I was supposed to let you all know how the anthology launch went...and I totally forgot!

Once again life - a new job and a new health kick plus trying to see my man and my friends - distracted me! Sorry!

The launch went soooooo well, it really couldn't have gone better!

I wrote a little micro-blog about it the next day, click here to see it.

Apologies for the lazy blogging, I'll put a proper one up soon - promise!

Stay happy,

WG x

Not long to go!

A while ago I mentioned that my Master's degree culminates in an anthology which is launched in London.

All of the big agents and publishers - and many of the smaller ones - are invited and it's hoped that at least some of us will launch our careers that night. Even if we don't it's a great way to introduce ourselves to the industry and to showcase what we've achieved in the last eighteen months.

Well....that launch is almost here! After months of planning, dreaming and thinking about it, the launch is THIS TUESDAY and I could not be more nervous!

I've got a dress, a train ticket and the hope that, if nothing else, I will get over my fear of public speaking.

I'll let you know how it goes!

WG x

Ten, Nine, Eight, Seven, Six...

These are the five best books that I've read in the last few weeks.... (in no particular order)

- Hit The Road, Jack by Mimi Thebo - This is the story of a young boy who sets out to find his father after discovering some letters in his mother's bedroom.

At first I was unsure of where it was headed but, already being a fan of Thebo, I trusted in her writing and enjoyed the gentle beginning, getting into Jack's world and meeting his varied and eccentric circle of friends. However, this gentle tone was shattered when Jack's father finally made an appearance and Thebo's true skill at producing tightly written prose was revealed in all it's glory. I won't spoil the surprise, but trust me, this short novel is most definitely worth a read...

- Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dogs Days by Jeff Kinney - I've reviewed this series before and this, the latest instalment is just as brilliant as the others. Funny, witty and well observed.

- Desperate Measures by Laura Summers - Narrated by twin sisters who take one chapter each, this is a look at the fostering system and what happens when siblings are torn apart. Particularly interesting as each sister's voice is clearly defined from each other and completely believable in their own, specific way.

- Arch Enemy: The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor - This is a brilliant ending to a very imaginative and well written trilogy. In this, the final book, Beddor has once again managed to successfully blend fantasy and reality in a way that makes the reader forget to look for the line. Interwoven is love, hate, ambition and friendship as his characters struggle against each other as well as themselves. Just brilliant.

- Daughter of Fire and Ice by Marie-Louise Jensen - I've already reviewed this book here but I cannot praise it highly enough! I've read it three times now - a very rare occurrence for me!

Those are my top five of the last few weeks but I've read lots of other great books which I will be featuring over the next little while.

Stay happy,

WG x

P.S. If you have a recommendation for me, just leave a comment or send me a message!

Just a quick note...

...to say take a look at my other blog to see a list of my favourite blogs and tumblrs. Never know, you might find something you like!

There is also a quick update on there.

I will post a proper blog on here sooooooon, promise!

Stay happy,

WG x

Checkmate, Malorie Blackman

Synopsis: Can the future ever erase the past?

Rose has a Cross mother and a nought father in a society where the pale-skinned noughts are treated as inferiors and those with dual heritage face a life-long battle against deep-rooted prejudices.

Sephy, her mother, has told Rose virtually nothing about her father, but as Rose grows into a young adult, she unexpectedly discovers the truth about her parentage, and becomes determined to find out more, to honour both sides of her heritage. But her father's family has a complicated history - one tied up with the fight for equality for the nought population.

And as Rose takes her first steps away from Sephy and into this world, she finds herself drawn inexorably into more and more danger.

Suddenly, it's a game of very high stakes that can only have one winner...

My Thoughts:I was a massive fan of the first book in this series as I thought it was interesting, thought provoking and tightly written.

This isn't the case here.

Although Blackman has brought together the numerous strands of the complicated narrative well, this novel is also repetitive and very slow in places.

Towards the end of the novel I became impatient with Callie and her never-ending angst and I just wanted to grasp Sephy by her shoulders and give her a good shake! Jude is also a bit of a cut-out villain and his passages left me cold.

On the plus side however, Blackman did keep me reading as I wanted to know where the twists of the narrative would take her characters next. I also liked the early passages with Callie where she talks to her dead father as I thought Blackman caught the spirit and voice of a young girl well.

Overall, although I found this book a bit hard going and tiresome in places, it was a satisfying conclusion to the series and a fitting end to Sephy and Callum's story.

***

Patience...

...is not actually a virtue. Did you know that?

But sometimes, having a little of it pays off.

I'm not know for my patience - apart from when it comes to taking care of children - but I've had to try and find some in the last few months as I wait and wait and wait and WAIT for answers from Agent A and to generally find some balance in my life.

Well, it has paid off in both ways!

Firstly, Agent A emailed me a couple of weeks ago to say that she likes my manuscript and would like to see it once I've made some adjustments! Mostly her notes were about lengthening it which I think it valid as it only currently weighs in at 35,000 words, pretty short, even for a Young Adult novel. So this week I've taken some holiday from work and am ploughing through it, making changes and adding more plot lines. I don't plan on making all of the changes that she has suggested, it still needs to be the novel I wanted to write, not one that I wrote to please someone else. Hopefully by Friday I'll be able to send it off to London once again and then the waiting can resume! But it's a big step forward just to get a response, I'd almost decided that it had been slung on the rubbish heap long ago!

Secondly, the job that I've wanted since I was 15 has fallen into my lap! I start in mid May and I literally cannot wait! It's a job as a Nanny for a private family and so I obviously can't go into details but put it this way - it's perfect! And it leaves me time to write so score all around!

Anyway, the point of this post is to say this: sometimes you have to hang on for the good things to happen. Just have patience!

Until next time,

Stay happy,

WG x

Daughter of Fire and Ice, Marie-Louise Jensen

Synopsis: 'A sense of menace grew on me all morning. Not a vision. No glimpse of the future disturbed me. It was more a shadow of approaching danger...'

Snatched by a notorious Viking chieftain, Thora is set to leave her homeland on a ship bound for Iceland. But when her captor is murdered an altogether different journey begins...

My Thoughts: The phrase 'I couldn't put it down' is often thrown around and has been used so much that it's becoming clichéd. However, with this novel, it's completely true as this book was pretty much stuck to my hands for the three days it took for me to consume it.

Jensen shows once again that she is a master at creating a realistic world that blends the familiar with the foreign.

The protagonist, Thora, is a well balanced character who manages to be good without being saccharine and who pulls the reader along with her on her journey as it twists and turns.

Forbidden love can often be frustrating and annoying for the reader but Jensen manages it so that the reader feels as though Thora and Bjorn will be together eventually, making the reader willing to wait for this outcome.

The antagonist, Ragna, is also well drawn as Jensen avoids making her into a cartoon villian, instead creating a character who is complicated and for whom the reader feels a small amount of sympathy for.

Overall, this is a novel that twists and turns, taking the reader to places that they don't expect and that had me wishing for more as I read the final words.

*****

To Autumn, John Keats.

I studied Keats at secondary school, then at college and finally at university. This has always been my favourite of his poems, there is something about it that evokes such a deep longing...

To Autumn, John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness!

Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;

Conspiring with him how to load and bless

With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eaves run;

To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees,

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;

To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells

With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,

And still more, later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,

For Summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?

Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find

Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,

Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind,

Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,

Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while thy hook

Spares the next swath and all its twinèd flowers;

And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;

Or by a cider-press, with patient look,

Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?

Think not of them, thou hast thy music too, -

While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;

Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn

Among the river sallows, borne aloft

Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;

And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;

Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft

The redbreast whistles from a garden-croft;

And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer

Synopsis: Twelve-year-old villain, Artemis Fowl, is the most ingenious criminal mastermind in history. His bold and daring plan is to hold a leprechaun to ransom. But he's taking on more than he bargained for when he kidnaps Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (Lower Elements Police Reconnaissance Unit).

For a start, leprechaun technology is more advanced than our own. Add to that the fact that Holly is a true heroine and that her senior officer Commander Root will stop at nothing to get her back and you've got the mother of all sieges brewing!

My Thoughts: I had mixed feelings about this novel.

On the one hand, I found it very readable and each character was quickly formed for the reader, making it easy to follow. The pace is also very swift and the blend of the 'real' world and the fairy world is artfully dealt with by Colfer.

However, I also had some problems with it.

The main issue that I had was with Artemis himself. Generally with a protagonist, the reader is supposed to like and sympathise with them and want them to succeed with whatever their quest is. With Artemis, this isn't the case as he is so self-centred, calculating and cold. Colfer has obviously tried to make him sympathetic with the fact that his mother is clearly mentally ill but this has failed because of the way that Artemis deals with her.

The other problem that I had was the constant repetition in parts of the text - particularly in the scenes between Foaly and Root and their 'banter'.

However, despite these problems, I still enjoyed this novel and read it very quickly. I'm just not sure that I would read any of the others...

***