Stuart’s super summer reads

Summer is a great time to catch up on some reading. Whether that’s on the beach, next to the pool or just in the garden at home, the one key ingredient is a fantastic book.

So what to choose? You don’t want to waste time on a dud now, do you?

That in mind, I’ve come up with a list of 10 great novels you may not have read but I recommend you should try. There’s no order to the list and they’re all very different. However, in my humble opinion, each one of them is a fantastic read. So you can find out more, I’ve included links to Goodreads, Amazon or Waterstones in the titles.

You’ll probably have heard of some of my choices, most of which are from the past few years. But I’ve tried to steer clear of anything too obvious, so hopefully there will be at least one or two you don’t recognise.

Anyway, here’s the list:

• Care of Wooden Floors by Will Wiles
• The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas
• Of Bees and Mist by Erick Setiawan
• The Two of Us by Andy Jones
• We Used to be Kings by Stewart Foster
• The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman
• The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
• The Scheme for Full Employment by Magnus Mills
• A is for Angelica by Iain Broome
• All the Birds, Singing by Evie Wyld

Happy reading.

Trip to London

I went down to London last week for the first time in several years. There was a Demystifying Digital event on at my publisher’s impressive new offices near London Bridge.

What a fantastic day out. The function, organised by the Avon team and featuring an array of knowledgeable HarperCollins staff, was really informative. I learned all sorts of useful information about publishing and promoting a novel in the digital age, so a big thank-you to everyone involved.

Here’s me (centre) enjoying a drink after the event with fellow Avon author Tim Lebbon and Sam Missingham, head of audience development at HarperCollins UK. Thanks to Avon author Michele Gorman for the photo.

Of course it was also rather special to visit the HarperCollins HQ for the first time. I was whisked 17 floors up from the Thames and then, against a panoramic backdrop of the capital, got to meet face to face all the lovely people who’ll be helping me bring my debut novel to life early next year. 

And I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room with so many other authors before. What a wealth of experience to draw upon for a first-timer like myself. 

The whole thing was superb and I still haven’t quite got my breath back. It’s made me more excited than ever about publication day. Roll on next March.

Countdown to publication

The publication date of my debut novel is 10 months away. Time to Say Goodbye will be available to purchase in March 2016. You can already find it listed on Amazon and Goodreads, although there’s no cover for it yet. That’s still to be designed, but I’m told it’s a work in progress. 

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited. Becoming a published novelist has been my dream for as long as I’ve been reading books. Finally it’s almost a reality.

On publication day I’ll be no doubt be hopping from one store to another, eyeing copies up on the shelves and – hopefully – witnessing someone buy one. More than that, I can’t wait for the day when I come across a stranger reading it. I’ll do my best not to make an idiot of myself by going over and saying something cringeworthy – like offering to sign it – but I can’t promise.

I still remember the first time I got a front page story in my early days as a newspaper journalist. Having my byline on the newsstands for all to see was a great feeling. I was proud as punch and bought copies to show all my family and friends. Most readers wouldn’t have even registered my name. Half probably didn’t read past the headline. Not that I cared. I was too busy fantasising about my future as a big-shot investigative reporter, which – ahem – never quite happened. Heigh-ho.

Anyway, I’ve just got the manuscript back from being copyedited. Now it’s my job to go through it again and action the suggested changes. 

It’s interesting how many differences there are in style between newspaper and fiction writing. For example, it was drummed into me during my trainee reporter days that you only spell out numbers from one to nine; from there on up, you use numerals. Not so in fiction. The convention, I’ve now learned, is to spell out numbers from zero to one hundred. Only then can you use numerals. And it’s not quite that straightforward, as there are specific rules for things like time and dates. If you’re writing something yourself and want to learn the ins and outs, I found this article helpful. 

Another thing is the requirement to use either italics or quotation marks for certain titles. The newspaper style I was taught involved neither. However, I now know that in fiction, a book, TV show or album title is italicised. And yet a song title appears in quotation marks. For more information, here’s another useful article.

I can’t believe I’ve never picked up on these conventions while reading, which I do a lot. I guess it’s not the kind of thing you pay attention to unless you have a specific reason. That’s my excuse, anyway. 

Finally, I was also surprised to find all my –ise spellings (realise, recognise, organise etc.) changed to –ize. ‘But that’s American,’ I said to my editor, only to be informed that this was the Oxford English Dictionary preference and thus the house style. I know many of my former newspaper colleagues will disagree, but what the hell, I’m going with the flow. That said, I’m sticking with my old journalistic style for this blog, as you’ll see if you look carefully. 

 

It’s just a shame I didn’t know these fiction writing rules before I wrote the manuscript for my next book . . .

My two favourite words

I’ve just written the best part of my latest manuscript. Well, my favourite part. It will never appear in any published version of the novel, but that doesn’t make it any less rewarding.

What am I rattling on about? The End. Two words, centred, which you type to indicate that you’ve made it. You’ve completed your first draft. Phew.

So what have I finished? It’s a novel with the working title On a Clifftop, although that will probably change before it sees daylight. I’ve been writing it as a follow up to my debut novel, Time to Say Goodbye, although it’s a totally unrelated story. I won’t go into detail now, as it’s still early days. However, it’s due to be published by Avon HarperCollins early in 2017, a year after the previous one. I know, ages away, isn’t it? But there’s still plenty of work to do.

Believe it or not, despite the warm feelings generated by completing a first draft, it’s far from finished. After a short break from the manuscript, to allow me some detachment, the hard work of revising it will begin. Initially this will be a solitary process of me picking apart, cutting and polishing the text. But eventually – once I’m happy enough to share it – I’ll welcome the thoughts, opinions and eagle eyes of several other people, from trusted friends and family to my agent and editor.

I like to think of it in terms of a sculpture. Not that I’ve ever made a sculpture, but I find it a useful analogy. The first draft is like creating a basic shape: something recognisable but far from complete. The next stages are all about detail: the cutting and crafting that breathes life into that shape.

For anyone embarking on writing a novel for the first time, I think this is an important concept to grasp. Trying to perfect everything straight away is a common mistake. This will result in slow progress and greatly decrease the chance of you ever finishing your manuscript. Very few writers like what they’ve just written. So I’d strongly discourage reading it at this stage. You’ll like it better later on – or at least you’ll hate it less. Trust me.

My advice would always be to keep writing; to look back as little as possible; to ignore your doubts and fears; to reach The End no matter what. I think it’s important to have a plan first, or at least some idea of where you’re going. But nothing’s more crucial than getting through that first draft. Once you’ve done that, you have a product to work with and improve: something substantial, far more than just an idea. Then you’re someone who’s actually written a novel, not just another person who fancies having a go but never finds time.

Finishing your first manuscript is one hell of an achievement. You’ll know what I’m talking about when you type those two magic words at the conclusion. It’s a wonderful feeling.

Books should be fun

Are you struggling to get through a book at the moment? Maybe it’s a classic or a recent prize winner that you feel you ought to read. It could be a novel someone bought you as a present or lent you because they loved it.

My advice: if you’re not enjoying it, ditch it. Why torture yourself? Imagine if you got run over by a bus tomorrow and died reading a book you hated.

You wouldn’t sit through a TV programme you weren’t enjoying. You’d switch channels and watch something else. So why treat books differently? If anything, we should be even more selective about what novels we read, because each one is a far greater investment of our time than any film or TV show. Okay, you could argue that a long-running TV series is more of a time hog than a book. But if you grew bored of it, you’d give up, right? I can’t think of many people who’d watch more than a couple of episodes of a show they weren’t enjoying.

Reading should be a pleasure – not a chore. I think it’s important we get this message across from an early age. I understand why primary schools set daily reading as homework. It makes sense for children’s development, especially during the early years when they’re still learning to read. And yet in doing so, it associates reading with work in children’s minds. So watching a movie or playing a computer game is always going to seem more appealing.

I don’t think there’s an easy solution here, but letting children choose what they read rather than prescribing particular books is probably a good start. I’ve seen adults turn their noses up at the comic book style of popular titles like the Tom Gates and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. But kids love them, so what’s the problem? They help make reading fun and that’s got to be a good thing.

There’s far too much snobbery when it comes to books. Look at the divide between so-called commercial and literary fiction. I was at a writers’ conference recently when a well-known literary author asked for members of the audience who wrote genre fiction to raise their hands. Once they had, the curmudgeon declared: ‘I have nothing to say to you.’

The message, a familiar one among book snobs, was that popular fiction – the page-turners that sell copies and readers actually enjoy – has no literary merit.  This is nonsense, as far as I’m concerned. Who says you can’t tell a story that’s as compelling and accessible as it is meaningful? Consider Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch and Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. They both do exactly this and, accordingly, have achieved commercial and literary success.

But at the same time, what’s wrong with reading any plot-driven thriller, romance or whatever you fancy? If that’s what you enjoy, go for it. Ignore the self-appointed book police. They’re the ones who’d rather you struggled with some tedious tome, losing the will to live in the process.

Books should be fun. If you’re battling one at the moment, my advice is to put it down and try another. There are plenty more out there. I spoke to a keen reader the other day who agreed. ‘I’m 65,’ she told me. ‘So I’ve decided that if a book hasn’t grabbed me by page 65, I’ll give up on it. Life’s too short.’

That seems like a good system to me.