annethology - Annecdotal blog

The Waiting Game

11/11/2023

I enjoy fiction that gives me an insight into lives different to my own, while illuminating a universal aspect of the human condition. In my writing, I hope to do something similar for my readers. I knew I could do the former in my current WIP – although wasn’t sure it would interest others until an extremely useful one-to-one with an experienced industry professional – but doubted my character’s situation was relatable.

Young women battling to survive: Year of Wonders & The Marriage Portrait

5/11/2023

I’m sharing my thoughts on two historical novels I’ve read recently, both featuring young women struggling to survive against the odds. The first is set in England in the 1660s, the second in Italy a century earlier.

Luda by Grant Morrison and a flash fiction piece about confidence

14/10/2023

Luci LaBang is a pantomime dame, beguiled by her co-star, Luda, a young man playing a young woman playing the show’s Principal Boy. Encouraged by the perfectionist director, Luci takes Luda under her wing to teach her the tricks of the trade. But dark forces are underfoot – is Luda victim or villain?

Women’s Voices in Black History: A More Perfect Union & Night Wherever We Go

6/10/2023

October is Black History Month in Europe and the focus this year is on women. So I’m pleased to share my reviews of recent reads of novels by talented Black women writers which illuminate the lives of Black women in mid nineteenth century America. The first interweaves the narrative of another atrocity in which Britain was complicit: the Irish famine. The second shows how far women will go to salvage some control of their fertility.

Inspired by the Brontës: Ghost Wife & Fifteen Wild Decembers

27/9/2023

We can’t get enough of the Brontës, can we? Whether it’s rereading the classic stories or rewriting them or delving into the lives of the authors, the sisters never seem to go out of fashion. So here are two recent reads inspired by them and their books. The first is a contemporary rewrite of Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, while the second is historical fiction with a particular focus on Emily, the author of Wuthering Heights.

Blanket or Blank It? #99WordStories

24/9/2023

At last week’s appointment I realised that, once again, I’d misunderstood a part of my medical regime. It’s ironic that the system that delivers the lab reports from my blood tests to my inbox prior to meeting my nephrologist is called Patients Know Best. Despite her efforts to learn to interpret up to two dozen readings without a grounding in biochemistry, this patient clearly doesn’t.

Insect Nation #99WordStories

13/9/2023

The latest flash fiction challenge from the Carrot Ranch is to compose a 99-word story about the insect nation. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but it got me thinking about how we humans underestimate the small creatures that live among us – or, perhaps, we live among. I didn’t have a suitable new review to pair my response with, so here’s a quote from a novel I read some time ago about a woman who runs a business resettling, rather than exterminating, household pests.

Words for a painting

8/9/2023

I’ve missed a few flash fiction challenges lately but, when I saw the latest prompt, I couldn’t resist. Who wouldn’t want to be part of a project that combines stories with nature and visual art? Especially when invited to compose a 99-word story in response to such an evocative painting? (You can click on the image to learn more.)

Coming-of-age against a backdrop of oppression: Best of Friends by Kamila Shamsie & Fox Fires by Wyl Menmuir

30/8/2023

Two recent reeds that made my 2023 favourites list, tentatively linked by being partly set in countries emerging from oppressive political regimes. The first was more straightforward than the second, but both made me think.

Of Cattle and Men and 11 Other Books by Women in Translation

22/8/2023

August is women in translation month, a time when readers prioritise books by women in translation – yes, it does what it says on the tin! – and I share the qualifying books I’ve read over the last twelve months. This year’s dozen represents nine languages (two up from last year) – Bosnian, Catalan, Danish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Portuguese, Spanish – and six publishers (Bloomsbury, Charco Press, Europa editions x3, Maclehose Press x 2, Peirene Press x 3, Quercus).

Here I share one new review, summaries and links to reviews I’ve published over the last twelve months, plus mentions of three I didn’t get round to reviewing.

Too much too young: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

4/8/2023

Dickens’ David Copperfield brought to contemporary South Virginia is a worthy winner of both the Pulitzer and Women’s Prize. It’s a story of inequalities, addiction, child protection failures and attachment to community and land.

Demon’s voice grabbed me from the first page and never let go and the tragedies of his early childhood – kidult mother; dead-end education; foster carers starving the children and working them like slaves – wrenched my heart. True to the source material, it’s not totally bleak: people do care for Demon, although not always with the power to put things right.

Canned fruit and commitment

27/7/2023

When I was growing up, we always had tinned fruit as part of Sunday tea. In those days, I’d never met a peach or a pineapple that didn’t come out of a can. Now that we can get mangoes, papaya and kiwifruit from an ordinary greengrocer, I hadn’t eaten the tinned stuff until I was in hospital last year.

I assumed it was a matter of economics and convenience that there was no fresh fruit on the menu. I soon learnt there were medicinal reasons too. Tinned fruit is lower in potassium and you don’t want to overdo the potassium if your kidneys are kaput.

It’s better to research before starting to write

20/7/2023

I’ve been away in Yorkshire on a research trip and returned home thoroughly inspired. But it wasn’t until the fourth and final day that I felt so optimistic. Initially, I was ready to abandon this novel completely and wait for the muse to send me something more plausible.

Last week, I mentioned my ambivalence about giving my character kidney failure. But with the setting – a former mill town that’s also a World Heritage Site – I felt on firmer ground. Oh, foolish me!

Is this relationship doomed?

15/7/2023

I’ve been having an on-off affair with my WIP since the end of last year. Sometimes, it’s all consuming. Sometimes, I think the relationship’s doomed and we should go our separate ways.

I’ve nailed my main character, drafted a few chapters and sketched out the plot. I even have a title. But I’m not sure if it’s too personal, and whether that’s an asset or emotional burden too big to bear.

Haunted by the Past: The Love of Singular Men by Victor Heringer translated by James Young

5/7/2023

Growing up in the outer suburbs of Rio de Janeiro in the 1970s, Camilo is barely aware of the poverty around him and the repression of dissenting voices under the military dictatorship. He has problems enough with his crippled leg and delicate skin that blisters in the savage sun.

Nationalism’s victims: Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng

28/6/2023

Twelve-year-old Bird doesn’t know why his mother disappeared three years ago. He doesn’t know why he and his father had to move from their large house to a tiny flat at the university, nor why his father lost his prestigious academic job. It can’t have anything to do with PACT, can it? The Preserving American Culture and Traditions Act was introduced to rescue the USA from the economic and social crisis around the time that he was born.

Connection and disconnection: Speak to Me by Paula Cocozza

26/6/2023

Even when they’re having sex, Susan’s husband doesn’t give her his full attention. So no wonder she’s jealous of Wendy – not the other woman in the love triangle, but the phone that rarely leaves Kurt’s hand. But Susan has her own obsession: a case of letters that have gone astray when the couple moved house.

A powerful state-of-the-nation novel: Spring by Ali Smith

16/6/2023

An ageing filmmaker, disillusioned by the moral bankruptcy of his current project, loses the will to live after the death of his mentor. A young woman working as a security guard at a migrant detention centre is literally and metaphorically taken for a ride by a precocious twelve-year-old girl. They meet up at a railway station near the site of the Culloden massacre in Scotland where an off-duty librarian driving a coffee van without any coffee picks them up.

Farmer, writer, influencer, tour guide, oxherd

8/6/2023

There must be more than six degrees of separation between a boy who attends his oxen in rural Thailand and a contemporary social media influencer in the USA. But the farmer could be one steppingstone between them and the writer a link from the other end. The tour guide could be the bridge in the middle because they might need to shit in the woods. What am I on about? The answer is in these five mini reviews.

Marriage at a Crossroads: The Fire & The Motion of the Body through Space

5/6/2023

Two novels about a difficult patch in a long marriage, complicated by difficult relationships with the couples’ offspring. The first is the best book I’ve read so far this year. The second, by a more famous author, doesn’t come anywhere near.

Political fiction: A House for Alice & Henry VIII The Heart & the Crown

20/5/2023

Here are reviews of two different types of English political novel. The first is contemporary and addresses how political events impact on an ordinary London family. The second is a historical novel that gets right to the heart of one of the most turbulent periods of British history.

Hope is an ash-hued sky #99WordStories

25/4/2023

This week’s flash fiction challenge reminds me how I’m often slightly out of step with the majority. As I puzzled over the prompt the colour of hope, I realised that many people consider hope a virtue that you can have more or less of, whereas, for me, it only makes sense as a transitive verb. Although I do quote readers who describe my fiction as hopeful, I don’t think of myself in such terms. It’s not that I’m hopeless (in either sense of the word), but I direct my hope to specific things.

When boundaries blur: Alone, The North Shore & A Burning

20/4/2023

When I blog about boundaries, I’m usually berating chaotic fictional therapists. Not today. These three intriguing novels are about the liminal space between plant and human; reality and fantasy; and sanity and scapegoating within the political sphere. My short reviews should help you decide whether to cross the threshold.

The old woman and the beast # 99WordStories

14/4/2023

Charli Mills’ call for 99-word stories pairing an old woman and a beast hit the sweet spot this week. A month away from publication of my novel, Lyrics for the Loved Ones, there’s only one old woman on my mind. Matty confronts several beasts in this story, set across thirteen tumultuous months beginning in June 2019. I’ve captured two in my contribution. I hope it whets your appetite and doesn’t give too much away.

Overburdened: The Plimsoll Line, Starling Days, Cat and the Dreamer, Unsettled Ground & Sorrow and Bliss

5/4/2023

Five recent reads about characters facing life challenges that are almost too much to bear: bereavement; chronic illness; relationship crises and more. See what you think.