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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Aftermath: The Tin Nose Shop & The Wilderness

12/7/2022

6 Comments

 
These two novels are about the consequences of untimely deaths on those left behind. The first is set during the First World War when a grieving soldier is set to work making masks to hide the horrific facial injuries of those wounded in the trenches. The second is about two orphaned sisters and an anthropologist with unconventional ideas about mourning rituals.

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The Tin Nose Shop by Don J Snyder

On the brink of facing a firing squad for cowardice, Sam Burke is issued surprising new orders. The army can put his artistic skills to use in making masks for fellow soldiers brutally disfigured on the battlefields of France. But, in the grip of undiagnosed PTSD, and grieving for his childhood friend, Ned, slaughtered in the trenches, Sam doesn’t know if he wants, or can manage, the job.
 
Inspired by real historical events, this is a compassionate and absorbing story of the horrific consequences of war, not only for the combatants, but for the families awaiting their return. Sam cannot face Ned’s wife, despite knowing she’s waiting for news. Katie is also mired in her own war, with a baby who won’t stop crying.
 
Situating the soldiers’ retreat in Northern Ireland enables the author to weave in a strand about the independence struggle, a different kind of war. Although I enjoyed this it does detract from the core of the book. Likewise Sam’s meeting with the poet and soldier Siegfried Sassoon towards the end of the novel seems an unnecessary addition.
 
But those are minor quibbles within a powerful novel about the casualties of war and I’m grateful to publishers Legend Press for my review copy. It poses the question of whether the masks are primarily to enable the men to pick up their lives again or for the government to hide how they have harmed a generation. I’ve read a couple of other novels that touch on the facial mutilations of the First World War: click on the cover image to see my reviews.

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The Wilderness by Sarah Duguid

When their parents die in a car crash, teenage sisters Sasha and Isabella are forced to share their ramshackle home on a remote Scottish island with three adults they barely know. Uprooted from her comfortable life in London, their aunt Anna isn’t particularly happy either, while her husband David wallows in his grief at losing his brother.
 
The only person the arrangement seems to suit is anthropology lecturer Brendan, a bohemian friend of Anna and David from university, and he wasn’t even invited. Disillusioned with his job, he seizes the opportunity to apply his knowledge of mourning rituals from other cultures to the girls and their uncle.
 
I really admired the interplay between Brendan and the sisters, as they alternately flirt with him and despise him, while he seems to have no awareness of the need for boundaries. It seemed inevitable that someone would be harmed, but would it be the girls or the middle-aged man?
 
Unfortunately, I wasn’t convinced by the ending when the couple’s marital problems lead Anna to neglect her responsibilities to the girls. But overall a readable novel about bereavement with some lovely descriptions of landscape and sea. Thanks to publishers Tinder Press for my advance proof copy.

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Meanwhile, at the Ranch, Charli asks If you had a day to spend with an icon of your past what would that be? In all honesty, it would have to be my health right now, so I could go on one of my favourite walks. But I reckon  I can compose a better 99-word story if I transfer that yearning to an imaginary soldier needing the services of the tin nose shop:
Summer picnic 1917

We’d make love as dawn light caressed the bedroom curtains and Molly would forgive my bristly chin. Later, as she prepared the picnic, our son would watch me as I shaved. We’d sing as we cycled to the river and I wouldn’t have to turn my back on them to eat.

I was prepared to sacrifice a limb for my country. Even give my life. I never thought my face was handsome till I lost it. But oh to have it back for just one day, not to have to choose between ghoulishness and disappearing behind a painted mask.
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
6 Comments
D. Avery link
14/7/2022 10:32:26 pm

I sure hope you get back on the trails soon. You're back on the writing path, this is a great take on the prompt that deftly and concisely shows the pain and angst of the soldiers and families recognized in The Tin Nose Shop.
"and I wouldn’t have to turn my back on them to eat"- ouch.

Reply
Anne
15/7/2022 04:25:34 pm

Thank you, my friend. yeah good that I'm reading and writing, even if the latter is only 99 words at a time. I sure miss those moors although probably going to be too hot to tramp them for a while, except for fire watching. Crazy weather here.

Reply
Jeanne Lombardo link
16/7/2022 10:30:06 pm

Hello Anne! I have finally joined the ranks of the "retired" and am getting back into revisiting favorite writers' sites. Your post today reminded me of what I have been missing....It also brought to mind a piece I read sometime back on these tin masks, complete with a gallery of photos of WWI soldiers whose faces had been so disfigured..."ghastly" is a word we Americans use only sheepishly, but it wholly describes the horrors those men endured. Poignant flash piece as well....Brava!
So I have had two weeks of freedom from toxicology reports and regulatory communications and am still revving my engines as regards writing. I tell myself I deserve a little break, but at the perimeters of consciousness is fear. Time to just dive in. I hold you as one of my models for a rich and engaged writing life.
As for walking, I haven't kept up with your health issues but I do hope you will soon be back on the trails. How I would love to be in England for a day just to ramble...it's 108 degrees F here at the moment, so we are all holed up.
I've saved another recent newsletter from you, on meadows I believe, and look forward to reading it.
For now all the best from across the pond.

Reply
Anne
18/7/2022 12:23:29 pm

Ah, lovely to hear from you. Of course you deserve a break and I can understand it being scary to finally focus on your own writing but you'll get there.

I wouldn't pick today or tomorrow for your one day in the English countryside. We're anticipating temperatures close to yours. But although there's been a warning of the risks, many here still have the mentality that sunshine is a rare comodity so we have to get out in it while we can. Not me,

Reply
Jeanne Lombardo link
19/7/2022 05:44:28 pm

Ah yes, the historic heat in England. Of course I've seen the news. Seems all out of whack...cool lovely England at 40+ degrees... I was in London 4 years ago and even then normally green fields on the route from Heathrow showed brown patches. I expect those sun lovers will get a bit of a shock if they're not careful. Heat exhaustion is a real thing.
I hadn't read your short stories before but finally got to them. "A Daughter Your Age" is brilliant. Had me feeling sick to my stomach before you delivered the final line. And "With a Small Bomb in Her Chest" ... great blending of the psychological and a kind of magic realism. I look forward to reading more.... as the mother of a grown daughter with whom I often have a challenging relationship, your topic particularly resonates.
I hear the heat there will pass soon. When it does, I hope the cooler weather is restorative.

Anne
25/7/2022 04:09:51 pm

Yay, thanks for reading and glad you enjoyed the stories. Mother-daughter relationships can be super tricky.
Much cooler this week but still not enough rain. We'll be desert soon :(




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