The Cuckoo's Calling: RobertGalbraith = JK Rowling. Should we have guessed earlier?

Last Tuesday, I randomly check Mugglenet website, as I often do, and discovered a new post announcing that J.K. Rowling had been unearthed as having published a crime novel under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.




The article gave sketchy basics about how the discovery had been made, and quoted J.K Rowling as having expressed disappointment that her secret had been discovered so quickly.  The same article mentioned that twenty two genuine reviews of the book had been published on Amazon while the secret remained unknown, and expression of disappointment in that now that her secret is out, readers will deliberately trash the books merits and ratings simply because of who the true author is publishing.

I hastened to read the genuine reviews, and was as equally amazed as the writer of the article or quotes from other articles cited in-text that the first review stated something to the effect that the reviewer wouldn't be surprised if this new crime author was actually an experienced, published author writing under a pseudonym.

At quick glance, each of the genuine reviews - there were even more by the time I viewed the page - gave favourable opinions about the story and author. Without hesitation, I downloaded the ebook version (not even considering that I may experience difficulties in purchasing a hardback copy) because I wanted to start reading immediately.  Although I am a fan of the Harry Potter stories, I am probably more accurately a fan of J.K Rowling's writing.  She definitely has had an influence over my own, as I have admired her skill with layering clues, and generating reader engagement long after readers have finished the completed works.




I was not a great fan of The Casual Vacancy. I pre-ordered the book the moment I learned she was publishing her first book since Harry Potter, and I like others truly wanted to enjoy the tale. Unfortunately, it is all too easy to compare anything else J.K Rowling writes to that of Harry Potter - as loved and detested as that series was, I don't think anything compares to the trashing and criticism The Casual Vacancy generated - which is sad, because a lot of that story's strengths were overlooked in favour of simple criticism. I disliked it for different reasons to other readers - it had no excitement or build up to its climax, and nothing 'changed', so I was left wondering 'what was the point in telling that tale then?'

Other people criticised - not without reason...

Head-hopping, yes it is jarring to the reader the first time they are yanked out of the point of view the reader has come to expect they will remain in, so fair criticism that J.K Rowling adopted a style in narrating the storyline that head hops multiple times within each chapter - all rules of good novel writing seem to point to 'only change point of view at the end of a scene or chapter, or after some indicated break'; but writers are also advised to know the rules before choosing to break them, and from my perspective J.K Rowling fully understood the rule she was breaking, and used it as a particular style and executed it with utmost consistency throughout the remainder of the book. And, as a reader, once I realised after the second or third time that this was going to happen quite consistently and with great frequency, I ceased being yanked out of my fictive state, and actually looked forward to gaining each of the other characters perspectives.

Yes, there was foul language... in an adult book - oh, the horror for so many people: "Harry Potter never used foul language like that" - No, it didn't. But folks, the book was not Harry Potter.The book was dealing with some pretty seedy side of life. I work with some of my area's most long-term jobless, and on a daily basis witness the language and poor behaviour; foul language much cruder and more frequent than J.K Rowling limited the pages to.

I haven't read a crime novel in a number of years.  I don't know why, I've always enjoyed them, but I have favoured fantasy and paranormal fiction probably because that's the type of novels I have a few different storylines for.

My only expectation in reading The Cuckoo's Calling, was to enjoy the words of J.K Rowling (now that I knew it was her) and to read a mystery 'whodunit' story.

I don't know if it is just me, or even if it is just my imagination, or having the benefit of hindsight, but as I read the story, I was curious as to just how many times I felt that J.K Rowling's personal writing style is so very present within the pages as the story progresses, while simultaneously understanding that great lengths had been gone into to disguise the true identity of the writer.

What do I mean by that?  Well, I'm not going to spoil the storyline for any reader, yet I feel I can say that there are certain 'key words' and 'key features' that appear within the storyline that had me thinking "How does this not point as strong clues that the writer is J.K Rowling?"  Stag, doe, pallid, loquacious, and a few other words that will forever be attached to J.K Rowling and Harry Potter in my mind (at the very least).  What a strange combination to appear in the works of someone completely different. Stag and doe, for example, such strong symbols identifying Harry Potters departed parents somehow make it into a crime novel that does not have animals or forests within its descriptions.

Firstly, the poems at the beginning of chapters.  J.K Rowling has included poems in the beginnings of her previous books before: Deathly Hallows, where readers are given passages from Aeschylus, The Libation Bearers, and William Penn, Move Fruits of Solitude; details explaining the term The Casual Vacancy, Charles Arnold-Baker Local Council Administration, Seventh Edition

And then there are those specific words...

Pallid... is there any scene or description of Professor Snape that does not include this word to describe his skin?  And here it appears within The Cuckoo's Calling.  Yes, I have seen this word used by other authors, but -- it is one of those words that J.K Rowling uses -  almost as a trademark - to describe characters.  If I recall correctly, I remember her using that word within the pages of The Casual Vacancy as well (but I'd have to fact check to be certain).

Loquacious... I mean, this one feels like an anvil sized clue.  Most writers use the simpler word 'talkative', but not J.K Rowling.  She has Hermione Granger describe to Harry that Victor Krum is 'not particularly loquacious' when Harry forms the opinion that Hermione and Krum spend more time 'snogging' than getting to know one another.  And loquacious appears in The Cuckoo's Calling. When it appears, the word 'talkative' could easily have been used, but the author has consistently uses higher educated words than what most of the books readers would have - J.K Rowling was no different in using these higher educated words within the Harry Potter books and The Casual Vacancy.

But J.K Rowling (and perhaps her publisher/editor) have gone to great lengths to remove all traces of her renown writing weaknesses that would have had readers guessing her identity long before actually occurred too: criticised immensely for the use of 'adverbs', namely during dialogue tags, such as 'Harry said angrily', such and such said 'whatever-ly'. I don't think I found even one example within The Cuckoo's Calling, yet, they were present (very minorly) within The Casual Vacancy.

But it was J.K Rowlings rich descriptions that truly would have made me curious, if I hadn't already known the true identity of the author...

The wonderful descriptions of both poverty and wealth could only have come from a writer who has experienced both.  Same with the experiences of paparazzi light-bulbs flashing in one's eyes.  There was an element of authenticity to the writer having lived and breathed through this on multiple occasions, the weariness and dislike of relentless invasion oozed onto the page.  I know I am no great writer, but I feel I can get emotion and mood across the page to my beta readers; and I can tell you now, not having experienced this, I could never have achieved this within my own writing.  And I have read a few other novels that follow the lives of the wealthy and famous, and in hindsight, even though I thoroughly enjoyed those light reads, none of them ringed that bell of 'the writer has been through this', they haven't even come close to depicting what it is really like to suffer at the hands of the paparazzi on its pages. I guess what I'm trying to say here is that other authors have seized upon the glamour side of being within the scrutinising unwanted spotlight within their stories; The Cuckoo's Calling truly reveals the inconvenience and intrusiveness of everyone wanting a piece of you, relentlessly, and going to sneaky and extreme lengths to gain a lecherous scoop.

Now consider for a moment that while releasing the later books within the Harry Potter series, J.K Rowling became known for desiring to 'play fair' with her readers. Harry Potter was 'at heart' a 'Whodunit' mystery.

So, what wouldn't be fair about J.K Rowling publishing a Mystery novel - which is her passion and forte - under a pseudonym when the very fact that the writer's name IS a pseudonym appears on the books jacket, as a subtle clue that 'all is not as it seems'?

And, in fairness to readers placing a few well-chosen clues that hint at her true identity to the clueiest of readers: mystery story + clues for the reader to work out = eventual reveal.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think there was any mis-intent like I am sure J.K Rowling will be meanly accused of; I think J K Rowling always intended for readers to find out - eventually - that she authored this book and its intended sequel(s). I think J. K Rowling truly understands how to engage with readers, and she genuinely enjoys the interaction from a distance. I truly believe that she craved getting honest and unbiased reader opinion about her story's merits.  The Casual Vacancy, published under her own name, was never going to achieve this. The comparison's to Harry Potter were always going to exist right from the release date.

I know that if I ever become a successfully published author (I'm still working on it), I'm not in it for the fame or recognition. I fully intend on writing under a pen name, with the very high hopes that I remain keeping my true identity unrevealed for all to invade. I, like J.K Rowling, love writing... if only I possessed even half her talent, I'd be in heaven if I could earn a decent living from doing something I truly love.  But I certainly don't envy or want the fame or the invasion to her privacy that J.K Rowling gained.

So I read this new book, and, I can honestly say that I enjoyed The Cuckoo's Calling for what it is: a mystery story.  It was an enjoyable read, possessed great descriptions (doesn't all her works), and all the clues were perfectly layered so that it was simultaneously not a - and also a delightful - surprise when the Whodunit was eventually revealed. (I was wrong in my guess, but not too far astray from reaching that conclusion my own self.)

I liked the character of Cormoran Strike, he came across more real than some other Private Investigators of other books. I loved that he was not cliche in any way. I'm glad Robin came to temp for him, they made a great team.  I loved Strike's thoroughness and skill in investigating where the Police had long since dismissed. I loved that J.K Rowling created a character of good motivation, and had him use his intellect.

And, I will conclude by saying, that I most certainly would have enjoyed the book even if I hadn't known that it was J.K Rowling writing it - I almost wish I had discovered the book before her secret came out.

Book Review: Shara and the Haunted Village

Book Review: Shara and the Haunted Village

Author: Jeffrey Getzin

Kindle Price: $4.99

Paperback: $4.99

Book Description

A Desperate Gamble

An ancient mystery, a legendary wizard, ghosts, magic, a demon … and Shara, an impoverished seamstress.

Shara has fallen on hard times recently. She’s starving, has just lost her home, and she can’t find work anywhere. However, a chance encounter with a a sociopathic giant and a charming rogue might just be her escape from her hand-to-mouth lifestyle. All she has to do is guide them to the haunted village she had stumbled upon when she was a child.

But can she trust them?

Char Mesan Writes

This is yet another of my free Kindle book downloads. For those of you who have read other reviews I have written, you will know by now that I love the fantasy and fairy tale type stories like that of when I was growing up – but in adult form.  It is the type of books I most love to read, and is also the type of stories I am most enjoying writing.

Shara and the Haunted Village captured my interest from its title alone; the book cover aided me in my decision to download; but the opening (and then subsequent) chapter(s) compelled me to keep turning pages and read on to find out how things will work out for Shara in the end. The author has certainly mastered chapter ending hooks to keep you hanging in there reading while you should have turned the lights out.

The story starts with Shara being newly homeless, desperate for food and worried about her long time survival.  In traditionally fairytale style, an opportunity taking Shara away from her ordinary live arrives, this time in the form of guiding two travellers to a place she and a her innkeeper friend, Gil, discovered quite by accident as children: the haunted village.

Ooh, a magical place with ghosts, and a legendary wizard.  Yep, I was most certainly going to keep on reading!

Like all good fairy tales of long ago the quest involves things happening in three’s. The Chekov’s Guns are all nicely fired by stories end, and the story’s underlying mystery is enough to compel you to read on.

One strong criticism I have with Shara and the Haunted Village is some of the strong swear words contained in the story, keeping the read as an adult’s only book. Some of it – actually, correct that, all of it – was not necessary; the brashness caused me to be yankedly removed from the reader’s fictive state when I read such (unwarranted) jarring lines of character dialogue.

Without giving too much of the storyline away, there is a character who it is an essential part of that character’s personality to use such brash language, and, I don’t have a problem with cursives within a story, so I wouldn’t have had a problem with this story if the swearing had been contained to just that character.  That first incident of swearing by a character just came out of nowhere so it hits you strongly because the same character had not uttered any foul language up until that point, making it unnecessarily crude and strong when it arrived, and without any further crudeness by that character later on, I had to question why this character swore so harshly during this scene.

As a writer myself, I think the author could have tried harder to keep the story in line with the conventions of the genre the story is in; the look and feel of the story was that of an old-style fairy tale slightly modernised for a current audience.  From my perspective though, the modernisation just didn’t need to include modern swearing; the same affect (in depicting the character react in anger) could have been easily and more appropriately achieved using old-style cursives, to keep the story ‘clean’. Actually, come to think of it, I think the swearing was the only modernisation within the story – the rest of the story felt timeless or classic. 

Another aspect of the storyline that I wasn’t keen on was the author’s handling of brute violence scenes.  Yes, many a popular classic fairy tales did often include scenes graphically depicting violence. But really, I didn’t buy into the main secondary character suddenly coming at the heroine with an axe in reaction to Shara being slow at recalling her movements of over ten years ago while trying to find the entrance to the haunted village. Even brutish, bloodthirsty characters have to possess good, logical reason(s) for attacking someone they’ve paid a lot of money to help them find an object or place. Yes, such a character would be highly suspicious that the hired help might have lied just to earn the gold on offer, but no, no, no they wouldn’t be so quick to try to kill that person before they get what they came for (especially when there are only two known characters – Gil and Shara – who have found the haunted village previously, so there is not a lot of choices as to who can guide him).

At story start, I truly engaged over the character of Shara and her plight, but as the story progressed, I realised there wasn't much depth to her or any of the other characters. There wasn't a character arc where the heroine came away all the wiser for the experience when the story came full circle for its end.

 

What I did like about the storyline very much, as always, is the magic and the characters using their skills to get themselves out of perilous situations. The story pace and suspense were good, but towards the end I was starting to skip a lot of the text so I could get to the end.

With all the good and bad points discussed above in mind, I’m giving Shara and the Haunted Village a three-star rating. The story idea was a good one, but the execution of this novella could definitely do with a number of improvements to get it up to where it could easily have belonged.

The story was priced 'just right' for me, so the Kindle price of $4.99 is just too excessive for what the story is. (I would have been happy to have paid $1.99 but not much more).

You can purchase a paperback copy of Shara and the Haunted Village from Amazon.com here. It is also temporarily available as a free Kindle book.

Invaluable Writer's Resource

Did you know that J.K Rowling had 'secret' words to alert her (cluey-er readers) that she was about to reveal subtle clues?  No, neither did until well after the seventh book had been published and no longer talked about.



In December 2011, I downloaded one of my first Kindle purchases: A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter by S.P Sipal. I took the risk on purchasing this $4.99 ebook because as a writer I was looking for a useful resource to assist me with my novel writing, and because I am a huge fan of the Harry Potter books - so this ebook combined two of my most favourite things.

And I have always been pleased that I bought it. 

A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter is a workshop on improving your own writing skills and techniques by using some of the 'neat' and 'unique' and 'fun' ways that other authors haven't really used, or they do but haven't handled anywhere near as well as J.K. Rowling.  It doesn't matter what genre the writer is writing for, this ebook is packed with analysis and examples so that you can apply what you have learned within your own stories, your own genre.

Many well established authors tout Steven King's "On Writing" as one of the best resources a writer can have in their writing arsenal, and I fully agree; I purchased it from my local bookstore and benefit from it with each rereading.  But, I have to also say that I personally gain a lot more though out of rereading a Writer's Guide to Harry Potter. Probably because I am so familiar with the Harry Potter books, and admire J.K Rowling's literary accomplishments and find J.K Rowling's writing voice and style so easy to read.

I enjoyed this invaluable writing resource so much, that I did my first ever book review on Amazon.com.  With over 500 Kindle book downloads and about fifty print books purchased over the past two years, and having only taken the time to review perhaps a handful (under ten, at least) reviews of my purchases, it is a strong testament to my praise for this resource that compelled me to give credit where credit is due.

Since downloading the ebook, I became a regular reader and occasional commenter on the author's website/blog.

And the good news is, that a Writer's Guide to Harry Potter is finally going to be published in print form, as it has been 'acquired' by Fuzzbom Publishing!

I can't wait for the release date (in Spring, which is probably American seasons, so that makes it Autumn here in Australia, so that means, later this year - around August/September)!  So many times I have wished I could print the ebook out, so I could thumb through pages instead of developing eye-strain from reading from electronic devices.

Anyway, until the print version is released later in 2013, if you want to get a head start on improving your writing skills, then I highly recommend novelists of any genre purchase the very reasonably priced ebook.  There are much higher priced courses and published books out there that provide way less value for money.  You can purchase a Writer's Guide to Harry Potter by clicking the link HERE or the image below:

Book Review: Witch Weigh by Caroline Mickelson

Book Review: Witch Weigh

Author: Caroline Mickelson

Kindle Price: $2.99

Paperback: $6.49

 

Book Description

Tessa Von Hellengaard is a real witch. Magical spells aside, she’s snarky and selfish, and the other witches in her silent spell coven are fed up with her. Their plan to reform Tessa involves taking away her magic, saddling her with one hundred extra pounds, and sending her to a weight loss spa. For good measure they call in Liam Kennedy, a charming and sexy fairy godfather, to teach her some manners. Desperate to regain her magic and determined to shed the weight, Tessa soon realizes that protecting her heart from Liam will prove to be her greatest challenge.

Disclaimers

First of all, I have to state up-front I am not a fan of the Romance genre.  I find most romance novels are too unbelievable, too far removed from real life for me to enter a fictive state. From my non-reader of romance position, I weary over drop-dead gorgeous heroes and heroines who will after the author has showered the couple with lots of drama, conflict and raising stakes are destined to live the fairytale happily ever after no matter what period the story is set.

So, forgive me if this is what you like about the Romance genre.

Second of all, although the Kindle price is $2.99 I acquired this book when it was a free download.

Thirdly, as an aspiring author, I am aware of some story and writing techniques that non-writer readers may not be aware of, so naturally, this affects my review compared to other reviewers.

Char Mesan Reviews

Witch Weigh can probably be best described as a paranormal romance novella, meaning it is a shorter read, and meant to be taken as ‘lighter’ and ‘more fun’ (story-wise) than full length novels.

The main, female character, Tessa Von Hellengaard, is a witch living in a mortal world.  She is a member of a coven, and uses her magic against mortals (mainly to push people around) in order to get what she wants, without any consideration of the effect – emotional, physical or otherwise – that she is causing to these other people. Tessa’s sole, selfish, focus as the story starts is to be elected as the coven’s representative to teach non-verbal spell-casting, for which her own coven specialises, in Europe.

Tessa is meant to be selfish and ‘snarky’ in personality, and she is.  Only, as a reader, I find her (what the author shouldn’t want) completely unlikeable, and therefore undeserving of a happily ever after ending despite the character learning the full-preachy lessons that are deliberately enforced upon her by her coven (and the author). The only ‘cool’ thing about Tessa that kept me reading Witch Weigh and not put the book down as soon as the disgusting behaviour became apparent is that as a witch, the character is able to perform magic (my most favourite aspect of these types of stories).  And not that over-the-top, Hollywood has vamped it up to full throttle in order to appeal to action-adventure movie-goers type of magic either, a la Harry Potter (movie), Merlin (TV series) and Once Upon a Time (TV series); more the wondrously simple magic casting like Samantha in Bewitched (TV series) or any children’s books the likes of The Folk of the Magic Faraway Tree by Enid Blyton and so on. So, the magic in Witch Weigh was rather delightful and appealing (for me).

Okay, so I didn’t like Tessa one bit, but I still read the story, because, well, the author’s writing style was easy and interesting enough to continue on.

In the Harry Potter books (not the movies as much), one of the strongest appeals was that of the richness of the wizarding world. In Witch Weigh, the elderly coven members being fed up about their rude and arrogant member (because Tessa is more downright rude and arrogant in addition to being selfish than the lesser description of ‘snarky’ or being ‘full of sass’ personality-wise) conjure a plan to force Tessa to learn a few lessons and change her rude, selfish and arrogant ways by teaming her up with a fairy godfather (a nice shake-up from the ordinary) and turning the usually thin Tessa into an overweight one attending a Fat Camp to work off the excess weight.

I was genuinely engaged watching the stubbornly arrogant and ignorant Tessa be slow to learn that the way to lose the excess kilo’s for her was not having to undertake hard workouts but to act from a place of kindness and unselfishness even though I didn't like the character.

The trouble for me, was that the author made the fairy godfather, Liam Kennedy, assigned to whip Tessa’s personality back into a more acceptable shape was more ‘Greek Adonis Angel’ than Fairy Godfather, so naturally, the two main characters were going to fall in love and live happily ever after.

But, I found the whole ‘romance’ between these two characters trite and unrealistic.

Liam Kennedy appears to be assigned troublesome witches with bad attitudes as being some sort of expert in whipping their personalities back into shape as his job.  So, for me, it was unrealistic that the drop-dead handsome godfather would start to develop feelings of like or love towards a personality that is so rude and obnoxious.  Maybe, if he had of fallen for Tessa once she was reformed (seriously, that is not a spoiler, is it?  I mean, you can see that Tessa will reform before stories end, without me having just stated it?) I might have liked the story a bit better and found his falling for her a bit more believable. But as it stands, Liam, the expert personality changer, starts falling for the bad personality instead of a nice one. Yeah, right.  I'd so fall in love with someone that selfish, arrogant and mean if I was an expert in helping bring out the best in people - not.

So this was where the Romance genre bit kicked in... and my interest waned, and eye-rolling began. And yes, Tessa reforms and there is a Happily Ever After style ending to round it all off and bring the story to its conclusion.

The strengths of this book are that it appears professionally edited, and the author’s writing style was engaging and easy to read, that the author made her writing seem effortless (and I know it is a lot of hard work!)

The weakness of the story is that it contained some ‘cliché’ genre elements that as an author myself I try hard to avoid within my own storytelling.

I enjoyed the story enough to keep reading, but I could easily have turned my Kindle off and not bothered to have gone back to finish it off because of the elements I don't like.

For me, the book was free and I enjoyed it sufficiently to give it a four star rating; but if I had of had to pay $2.99 to purchase it, then I probably would have been a bit more critical (and I don't like to be), and perhaps a bit more unfavourable towards the author (I know, I haven't perfected my own writing yet, so who am I to critique another writer!).  All up, I think I would have been content to have paid $1.99 for this Kindle book as reasonably priced.

If you love stories with romance, magical elements, a bit of ‘heroine’ acting arrogant, then you will definitely enjoy Witch Weigh as a delightful 'beach' or 'waiting room' read.

I've read worse.  I'm giving the story a four star rating instead of five purely because Tessa wasn't very likeable as a main character, and Liam becoming romantically interested in the horrible Tessa occurred too soon for it to be believable.  But apart from those two aspects, and that 'a lesson needs to be learned' is a bit preachy, the story and writing was, even if I haven't conveyed this properly,  worth reading.

Witch Weigh is available in paperback and Kindle versions from Amazon

Overcoming the problem of skipping breakfast

In 2010-ish I borrowed a book from the Library. I don't remember the title now, and I have never seen the book on the shelf again despite a number of attempts to re-find it.

The book was to help you determine if you have a chemical imbalance as the cause of experiencing difficulties in reducing weight, and provided advice on overcoming sugar addiction. Packed with tiny tables with examples, the unknown author (my apologises to the author: you really deserve every praise and credit for producing such a wonderful helpful book) explained different chemicals produced by the human body and the impact it has upon metabolising food (yeah, I've read these types of books before but this was different to most), with the ultimate purpose of empowering the reader to get to the non-emotional root  and to then use the information one learns about their own body over a six week period to assist them in  setting and reaching their weight reduction goals.

I really wish I could remember the name of the book!

Being a bit of a Microsoft Word nerd, while I had the book I created an entire series of daily, weekly and analysing-the-data tracking forms based on all the mini-tables scattered throughout the book (bordering on plagarising I know, but I only intended to use the forms for my own benefit), which I then printed out (creating a inch-thick booklet for myself to complete). For the next six weeks, every hour on the hour during my waking moments, I dedicatedly spent less than one minute placing little dots into relevant grids for a number of considerations without over-analysing how I felt (as per the author instructions). For example, from memory one of the considerations was your current Hunger Level, and you marked on the grid whether you were (something like) Not Hungry, Mildly Hungry, Quite Hungry, Ravenous etc. Without thinking too much about it, you looked at the choices and chose your current hunger level. And then you moved onto the next consideration, for example your current Mood and whatever its choices were. Over the course of the day, you could see the rise and fall pattern for a range of considerations: hunger level, your mood, thirst level.

Seriously, I regret the day my last computer crashed resulting in my losing those electronic files. I spent weeks making those forms!

The information I gleaned from having carried out the exercise was... eye-opening. (There are so many words I could write here).

I learned that even though the foods I had eaten was on the most part 'healthy', my body was having problems because of my eating habits. My habit of never eating breakfast, even though it is common knowledge that people should never skip breakfast and I frequently endeavoured to eat this meal, was actually caused by a chemical imbalance preventing me from eating that meal!  Armed with this new information, I was able to experiment in how I could overcome this particular barrier (the author went in a whole new direction with her book from this point, which left me having to go it alone unfortunately).

It has taken me roughly two and a half to three years to train my body to feel hungry in the morning, and the solution in the end was rather simple: I couldn't eat my breakfast, so I turned to drinking it instead (to begin with).  Now, I can happily report that I maintain breakfast eating habits with eating a bowl of porridge or low-sugar cereals with a small handful of fresh fruit, or, on the days when I just can't stomach eating, I maintain my morning fuel-up by drinking a delicious smoothie - even if I have to water it down so I don't feel 'yuck'.

And, although I can't remember the reason why any more, I also eat thinly sliced Turkey on a sandwich twice to three times per week, because there is a beneficial chemical in turkey that was the secret to turning the situation around.

Anyway, if anyone ever knows the book I am talking about, please post the title in the comments section.  I still have my old completed tattered booklet, held together by a metal U-clip, but I would love to re-read the book, to understand how and why my former breakfast-skipping  leads to imbalance.

The Rock Star's Daughter

I never know how to answer the question, "Are you a reader?"

                                                                    


Compared to my sister who always seems to be reading a book, I am a long way off from being able to say I am a book-lover. But, compared to other people, they would find ME to be the book-lover.

I loved, actually still do love, the Harry Potter series.  JK Rowling has long been my favourite writer of all time. It has been hard for me to find other stories that hold my interest the way the Harry Potter books captivated me.

Last Friday night, my grown up children were all off doing their own thing, and after a very long, tiring week at work, I was in the mood to put my writing aside for the weekend to just kick back and relax. I really wished I had a book to read, but even though I sometimes visit my local library and more frequently visit local bookstores, I haven't found any title that compelled me to part with cash enough to buy one. (I'm a little on the broke side as a result of a few larger than expected bills, spending more to eat a healthier diet, and supporting my children through some of their financial woes at the moment - hopefully, I'll recover from all this now that Christmas is over and my car rego and insurance is almost out of the way!)

Every now and again, I scout Amazon.com in search of free Kindle books, but, to be perfectly honest, I am sick of only getting Romance, Erotica and non-interesting non-fiction titles, of self-publishing authors who have not perfected even basic punctuation. (I'm not against self-publishing, being an aspiring novelist myself, but please, proofread your manuscripts and put a bit of time distance between the best thing you ever wrote and submitting it for self-publishing: you'll be amazed how many errors you can catch a month, three months, six months later when you re-read your supposedly error-free manuscript!)

So, last Friday night, I scrolled through my iPhone apps, and remembered I have iBooks, and better still, six months ago I put $30 credit into my iTunes account because I was going to purchase something and then forgot about it (ah, the days before my son lost his job around the same time my middle child decided she could start asking me to pay for things to suit her high needs lifestyle despite the fact she no longer lives with us).  I found iBooks/Tunes/whatever free books rather quickly, and scrolled through its small selection.  Yes, there was a few that Amazon have had in their Top 100 list for the last few months, but there was one or two that I had never seen before.

The Rock Star's Daughter caught my eye.  Yes, I could do with a light story about the rich and famous, and enjoy being swept away into their exorbitant wealthy lifestyles for the weekend. I downloaded the book, along with a couple of other titles.

Now, I digress for a moment.  My youngest daughter, a book-lover, almost to the degree of that of my sister, tried for months to get me to read The Hunger Games which she fell in love with, but I resisted because, as I kept telling her, 'I'm not fussed on first-person stories'.  I haven't changed my stance on this (until now.  But it will remain temporarily changed, exclusively for the Treadwell series).

After my downloads, and getting dinner over with, I retired to my air-conditioned room, opened iBooks, and clicked on the first of about ten downloads.  My aim was to start trying to read each of the books, and, knowing that they probably won't end up 'my cup of tea', delete them off the list as soon as I had eliminated the book as being 'not my cup of tea'.

The first book I opened was The Rock Star's Daughter.  I really didn't expect to like the book.  I liked the title. Yeah, I was in the mood to become absorbed in a life so unlike my own...

Now, I did increase the size of the font because my failing eyesight demands this of me the last couple of years (my middle child never ceases to crack up laughing when she sees the size of print I have to read text messages and apps!), so I have to give a story a bit more of a chance than just reading the first page.  On iBooks, my first page sometimes isn't even the full first paragraph, to give you an idea of how large the text needs to be for me to see it properly.

I groaned, or exhaled with disappointed resignation, when I first realised, "Oh, it's in first-person" but being a spoiled rock star's daughter and having wealth must have been more appealing than my disdain for first-person stories, because I kept reading... and reading, and reading.

Before I knew it, it was after midnight.  I still hadn't changed out of my work clothes, and I had arrived home at 5.30pm. The kids weren't asking me to take them here, pick them up from there, and you need to do this tomorrow, so I continued reading about Taylor Beauforte, Chase Atwood's daughter, who just lost her mother and now has to go and live with her famous rock star father who she has only met twice in her life but who pays for her to attend her rich girl boarding school.

                                                                         


The author, Caitlyn Duffy, although she is writing each of the books of the Treadwell Series as independent stories written in the first-person, has such an easy-to-read writing style, and she wrote such engaging characters that after the inciting incident that shakes -- oops, almost wrote 'rocks' -- Taylor's world doesn't NEED any further 'big dramatic climatic moment' to see you through to the end... and leave you wanting more.

As soon as I finished the last few chapters on Saturday morning, actually make that afternoon because I slept in, I immediately went back to the iBook Store and purchased the next two books that have already been published, at $0.99 each. Bargain!

I justified, not that I have anyone that I have to justify the purchase to, that at $2 if I didn't like the next two books, it was still worth having paid the money.

Book two is Believer's Daughter.  Book Three is Viscount Daughter.

                                                                     


I am not religious.  So, when I started reading book two, I soon realised that religion would be a very strong theme in the book, and I struggled with the first chapter to the point I didn't finish it.

I abandoned Book Two, and decided to try Book Three.  I spent the rest of my afternoon and evening reading book three.  I even read while I left the comfort of my air-conditioned bedroom to walk down the hallway and into the lounge room in this sweltering summer heat to grab food and drinks and take them back to my blissfully cold room.

I finished the second book - Book Three - around 9 pm.  By this time, I had just read two books back to back that had captured - and held -  my reading attention as much as Harry Potter!

So, wanting more of the Treadwell series, I decided to re-attempt Book Two. Believer's Daughter.  Yes, I struggled slightly to get through the first chapter, but then it got better and I settled in to the storyline.  By the end, which I finished at some point on Sunday afternoon, I knew Believer's Daughter was the best in the series so far.

So, if you are looking for a story that is easy to read, doesn't cost much, and you don't mind being an adult reading what turns out to be a Young Adult category series of novels, then download Caitlyn Duffy's Treadwell Series.

The author, on her website, states that the next book will be published 'soon', and posts over the last four months repeatedly state this.  I am now stalking her webpage weekly, eagerly awaiting The Tycoon's Daughter release, or the other title she is working on in the series whose title eludes me as I write this post but I will happily pay to download too.

To Caitlyn Duffy: you can afford to charge more.  Your stories are worth it!