An End of Year Post! or “How Was It For You?”

I don’t think many of us will look back on 2021 with unalloyed joy! We almost have a duty to look forward to 2022, in the not-very-convincing expectation that it won’t at least be worse!

Personally, my year has been bound by the forced realisation that I’m no spring chicken – no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise. Sadly, my titanium knee has started to degrade, much as I expected. I also have been made acutely aware of how much my energy levels have fallen. To put it in a nutshell, my get-up-and-go has got-up-and-went! All this has been coupled with an equally savage falling off with my OHs health. As someone said, “Growing old is no game for cissies!”

One thing that makes it worse is that neither myself nor my OH are in the first flush of youth. Realistically, we don’t have that many years left (not complaining – just do the maths) and that’s two years now of lost and missed opportunities, mostly involving our granddaughter, then family and friends. Still, its no use trying to blame a virus. They are notoriously unsympathetic!

However, and this is the important bit, – NONE of this is going to stop me trying to wring every ounce of joy from every single incident, on every day of the year! I urge you all to do the same.

May All YOUR Tests Be Negative!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch……

Andrew Holgate, Literary Editor of the Times and Sunday Times, produced a list of the Best Books of the Year for “Every Genre”. In so doing he left off the LARGEST genre of all – Romance, in any of its tropes!

Like many friends who write, I was appalled by the pure snobbishness on display. Thankfully, the wonderful RNA strode in to bat for ALL of us authors of romance. Their letter is in the link.(I signed it too)

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/rna-writes-open-letter-sunday-times-after-romantic-fiction-excluded-best-books-roundup-1294270

Andrew Holgate himself seems to have gone to ground since he penned his original article. However, the RNA is made of sterner stuff. Four of their more successful members produced this excellent article:

https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/2021/12/love-in-the-time-of-snobbery/

Thankyou to Milly Johnson, Phillipa Ashley, Heidi Swain and Rowal Coleman. Kudos to all! 

The article has garnered support from all quarters, This very readable riposte came through Harper Collins Australia, penned by https://www.facebook.com/VictoriaBrookmn

https://www.harpercollins.com.au/blog/2021/12/15/victoria-brookman-in-defence-of-womens-fiction/

 I also urge you all to keep up the struggle to stop the literary world ignoring what they like to label “Women’s Fiction!” I will continue the campaign mounted by the Romantic Novelists Association to bring the genre – OUR genre - to its rightful place. I also urge any writer whose work can be described as Romance – of any sort, or in any of its multitudinous tropes, to join the Romantic Novelists Association. Together we are stronger!

https://romanticnovelistsassociation.org/membership/

You and I can help by using the hashtag #RespectRomFic on ALL your book-related posts, whether in Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. Remember, Caring is SHARING!

💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖💖

To close, for the New Year – 2022 - and still “Next Year” at the time of writing, there is always hope. We have been lucky here in that we haven’t, as far as we know, lost any friends or family to the virus. For that we are truly thankful.

Have a fantastic 2022 ! 

EVERYDAY KINDNESS for 2022!

Now the Christmas stockings have been opened and the stress and excitement of the big day are past, the lull between Christmas and New Year is often a time to reflect, as well as planning for the year ahead. 

Here, in the United Kingdom, and further afield too, we face an uncertain period as more restrictions are brought in, meaning that now more than ever we need stories filled with optimism and promise. 

Everyday Kindness - an uplifting anthology

Each festive season I like to support a charity anthology, and this year is the turn of Everyday Kindness; a collection of uplifting tales by bestselling authors, written to brighten your day. The cover blurb states that the collection offers hope, and goodness, at present, we need as much of that as we can get!

 

And if a whole bucket load of inspiring tales isn’t enough to tempt you to buy, then the good news is that all proceeds are donated to Shelter. A UK charity which helps people struggling with homelessness and bad housing, offering both advice and vital support. 

Everyday Kindness contains a superb selection of work donated by over fifty authors, so you get real bang for your buck. It’s a doorstopper of a book (available as an e-book too) which, if you read a story a day, will cheer you right through to spring. What more could you wish for from a charity anthology that includes short stories by bestselling, award-winning authors including Liz Fenwick, Emma Robinson, Imogen Clark, CL Taylor, Clare Flynn, Holly Martin, Kim Nash, Leah Mercer, Louise Jensen, Mark Stay, Will Dean and so many, many more... 

It may be too late as a stocking filler, but why not treat yourself and a friend (or better still, several friends) to a little Everyday Kindness (available to buy here). What a fantastic way to begin a new year. 

So, as we race towards the end of 2021, the Novel Points of View team says a sincere thank you for your continued support throughout the year, and wish everyone a safe, happy, hopeful 2022 – filled with Everyday Kindness.

Happy reading!

Rae x

It's Beginning To Feel Like Christmas...

Every Christmas I like to browse the new festive releases from my publisher, Choc Lit, & their imprint Ruby Fiction. As always, the covers look amazing. Congratulations to all the authors who have been busy writing these festive treats over the past year! Why don't you have a browse too! If the blurb tickles your fancy, just click on the book cover to find out more. All the books are available in ebook and audiobook format and some are in paperback too! Enjoy!

Laughing All The Way by Berni Stevens

If you received a mysterious invitation for a fun-filled festive train ride the week before Christmas, would you go?

When teacher Dee Nicholls receives her invitation, she isn’t sure what to make of it. Surely it’s some kind of joke to get her out of bed early on a weekend? Perhaps a clever festive marketing ploy?

But as the Christmas countdown begins, it becomes clear that Dee isn’t the only “Jingle Bells Express” invitee. There are other people out there who have received the same invitation: Tom the intern, Rachel the aspiring writer, Dylan the musician and his dog Muttley – and they’re not the only ones!

Could the unusual festive journey they eventually take together show them all the true meaning of Christmas, and also that happiness is sometimes right in front of you – if you just take the time to look?

***

Strictly Christmas Spirit by Helen Buckley

Ex-dancer Emily Williams turned her back on the sparkle of popular dancing show Strictly Dancing with Celebs to help those in need. Now the only dancing she does is teaching lonely pensioners to waltz, and the closest she gets to disco balls is making baubles with the homeless people in her Christmas crafts class.

She’s certainly not star-struck when Hollywood heart-throb Blake Harris is sent to her at short notice for community service, and has no desire to babysit the arrogant actor with his bad boy antics and selfish ways. Christmas might be a time for miracles, but Blake seems to be a lost cause.

Could their time together, coupled with a dash of Christmas spirit, lead to a miracle change of heart for them both?

***

A Cornish Christmas at Pear Tree Farm by Angela Britnell

Pear Tree Farm in Cornwall, owned by the kind-hearted Nessa Vivian, is known for taking in lost souls, and ex-soldier Crispin Davies is certainly one of those. But the once sleepy caravan park is now a thriving business, and far from the peace and quiet Crispin was craving, he soon finds himself roped into helping out with a short-notice Christmas festival, organised by Nessa’s force-of-nature sister, Lowena.

But despite Crispin’s initial reluctance, his involvement in the festival serves to throw him together with Ashley Spencer, an American woman and fellow lost soul, who works at the nearby Tregereth House. Could Lowena’s ambitious scheme result in a more hopeful Christmas and New Year for them both – with a few surprises along the way?

***

Christmas at Serenity Bay by Helen Bridgett

Chloe Walsh’s skills as location manager for the beautiful seaside village she calls home have come up trumps again, and Serenity Bay is now the setting for cosy crime drama The Montgomery Mysteries, starring amateur sleuth Dominic Montgomery and his crime-solving dog, Agatha.

But Chloe is in a race against time. Filming has to finish before the village Midwinter Festival but schedules are tight – and a mystery saboteur is intent on slowing things down even further. Not only is Chloe facing problems with the shoot, she also has some personal conundrums to solve – a diva actor has commandeered her flat, her mum is having a late mid-life crisis, plus she has no idea what to buy for her Christmas-obsessed boyfriend!

Can Chloe sort out her life and save Christmas for an entire village?

***

Christmas of New Beginnings by Kirsty Ferry

Not all festive wishes come true right away – sometimes it takes five Christmases …

Folk singer Cerys Davies left Wales for the South Downs village of Padcock at Christmas, desperate for a new beginning. And she ends up having plenty of those: opening a new craft shop-tea room, helping set up the village’s first festive craft fair, and, of course, falling desperately in love with Lovely Sam, the owner of the local pub. It’s just too bad he’s firmly in the clutches of Awful Belinda …

Perhaps Cerys has to learn that some new beginnings take a while to … well, begin! But with a bit of patience, some mild espionage, a generous sprinkling of festive magic and a flock of pub-crashing sheep, could her fifth Christmas in Padcock lead to her best new beginning yet?

For more Choc Lit and Ruby Fiction festive reads please click HERE 

***

Summer's Christmas by Ella Cook

Summer by name and summer by nature – that’s how people describe Evelyn’s happy, outgoing daughter. Even if her favourite time of year is actually Christmas!

But Summer has gone through more than any eight-year-old ever should, and that’s part of the reason Evelyn is leaving everything behind to return to her childhood home in the village of Broclington; just her, Summer and Summer’s best friend – a Shiba Inu dog called Tilly. Unsurprisingly, Evelyn is hesitant to let anyone else in, although local vet Jake Macpearson seems intent on winning her trust.

When Evelyn receives the news that every mother dreads, it’s Jake who comes to the rescue. With the help of the Broclington community, could he be the man to bring festive magic to August, and make all of Evelyn and Summer’s Christmases come at once?

***

Perhaps now is a good time to mention my own festive novella! Originally published by Choc Lit as an ebook and audiobook, I always hoped that one day it would be released in print.

I am delighted to say that it is now out in large print for the very first time this Christmas!

A Daughter's Christmas Wish by Victoria Cornwall

Christmas, 1919. A promise to a fellow soldier leads Nicholas to Cornwall for Christmas, and to the teashop managed by Rose: the youngest daughter of a family whose festive spirit has been blighted by their wartime experiences.

But as Nicholas strives to give Rose the best Christmas she could wish for, he begins to question whether his efforts are to honour his friend - or if there is another reason...

The large print format is published by Ulverscroft and you can buy a copy HERE

This is my last post until after Christmas, so I hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!

Victoria Cornwall

DEDICATION .... IS THE NAME OF THE GAME.

So, you've written your 80,000 or so words. You've edited them. Your editor has edited them. The blurb for the back of the book has been sorted. If you're lucky enough to have famous friends then you'll have got a puff quote too. You've done the acknowledgements - fingers crossed you haven't missed out anyone who will chop you off their Christmas list. I have a book here by an American author (not going to name her) who has four whole pages (in a tiny font) of acknowledgements - page after page of names all separated by a semi colon. I'm left wondering if these were people she met on a long, long train journey or something. But I digress ... we are talking DEDICATIONS. To do this blogpost I had a rummage through my bookshelves. I used to have far more books but the floorboards began to quake under their weight and a good many of them had to go. So, for this exercise I grabbed some books at random. And it's been interesting. I CAPTURE THE CASTLE by Dodie Smith has no dedication - well, not in the version I have anyway. I once went for a walk with my father in the Essex countryside and he stopped outside a white weatherboarded cottage and said, 'A famous writer lived here.' It was Dodie Smith. But I digress, we are talking DEDICATIONS. PERFUME -The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind has no dedication either. And neither do the Thomas Hardy novels I have here - most of them. One of the first books I every owned was a Sunday School prize - HOLIDAYS AT THE WARREN by Marjorie A Sindall. The dedication reads 'For CON to remind her'. I'm left wondering who Con might have been to Marjorie and what she needed to be reminded of forever and in printed form. Kathleen Tessaro's dedication for THE PERFUME COLLECTOR (are you picking up on my fondness for perfume here?) reads 'For my son Eddie, always, evermore ... and then some'. What if she also had a daughter? Is the son the favourite and how would the daughter feel to read that? But I digress, we are talking DEDICATIONS. 'To Geoff. for believing' is the dedication of Judi Hendricks in BREAD ALONE - one of my favourite books of all time. Adriana Trigiani for LUCIA, LUCIA has a pretty long acknowledgements list (but not as long as the above) and obviously was wary of leaving anyone out so for her Dedication she has 'For my sisters, Mary Yolanda, Lucia Anna, Antonia and Francesca, and my bothers, Michael and Carlo. And now the biggie - GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell. I once met a real life Margaret Mitchell - also an author - but she wasn't allowed to use her real name because that had already been bagged ... and how! But I digress - we are talking DEDICATIONS. In the 1937 copy of this most famous book that I have here the Dedication is 'To J.R.M.'. I'm guessing - perhaps - her husband. Or might she have had a lover with the same initials as her husband? Who knew Dedications could be so intriguing? And I don't suppose they are - or are meant to be - until you start reading them. Of all the dedications I looked at to write this blogpost the one that made me smile the most is A.A. Milne's NOW WE ARE SIX. I have met A. A. Milne's almost-as-famous son, Christopher Robin. We were godparents to the same child some fifty years or so ago now. But I digress, we are talking DEDICATIONS. Mr Milne Senior dedicated this book to 'ANNE DARLINGTON' now she is seven and because she is so speshal (sic). Isn't that lovely! I hadn't noticed it before but I now see that on the inside of the front cover are these words, Oakdale C School. Presented to Peter for Good Collection of Salvage April - July 1942. Isn't that something! Obviously Peter's effort was a wartime venture but still appropriate today as we try and save the planet under a detritus of plastic and the like. And now to my own DEDICATIONS. I've had to do this nine times now, but what a lovely problem to have. There must be so many people out there who would love to struggle with a Dedication and wondering for all time if they've made the right one. For my own first novel - TO TURN FULL CIRCLE - I wrote thus: 'For my son James, and my daughter, Sarah - ever my shining stars. And in memory of my father, Olmen Arthur, who always believed in me.' I just had to get my dad in there because his name was pretty 'speshal' too. Goodness only knows where my Granny got it from. I once gave my dad Middlemarch to read because I'd loved it so. He handed it back, thus 'Well, dear, she didn't write one word where a thousand would do, did she?'. But I digress, we are talking DEDICATIONS. So, ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, do any of you have a favourite dedication, or even one of your own that, perhaps, you wish you hadn't made?

As you will see from this photo, my first ever novel had the best placement ever in Waterstones .. but I digress ....