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About the author and blogger ...

Anne Goodwin’s drive to understand what makes people tick led to a career in clinical psychology. That same curiosity now powers her fiction.
A prize-winning short-story writer, she has published three novels and a short story collection with small independent press, Inspired Quill. Her debut novel, Sugar and Snails, was shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize.
Away from her desk, Anne guides book-loving walkers through the Derbyshire landscape that inspired Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.
Subscribers to her newsletter can download a free e-book of award-winning short stories.

TELL ME MORE

Every picture paints a story

1/7/2019

6 Comments

 
Although I’m generally more articulate in words than visuals, sometimes the balance swings the other way. Still playing catch-up a busy week and weekend, and with a few things to share before I can fully embrace a new week and new month, I’ve gone for an image-heavy post today. First up, is the gorgeous cover of my debut novel, Sugar and Snails, about a woman who has kept her past identity secret for thirty years, which is battling with nine others on cover wars. If you can spare a moment, please follow the link and vote for the one you prefer.
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I had hoped to post one of my regular posts on reading before June was out, but over-preparing for an event on Saturday stole the time I’d provisionally set aside. This is the poster I created for a stall at a local book fair with fellow IQ author Clare Stevens and members of the creative writing group she facilitates for the Maggie’s cancer centre.
Given the amount of stuff going on, it was good to have an audience for our readings although, by the end of the afternoon, it was so unusually hot even the most ardent bookworms had headed home. The overall theme was finding your (safe) place; I read the scene from my second novel, Underneath, when Liesel and Steve first visit the house with the cellar.
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Since the theme crops up in all three of my books, it wasn’t easy choosing which to read from. While procrastinating on Friday, I decided to film a video on finding your place in my fiction. Well, someone might watch it! Who knows?

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I’m glad I took some time away from our stall to attend one of the more formal sessions with Elizabeth Cook, whose historical novel I reviewed in April this year. Elizabeth revealed that Lux took seventeen years to write, and her hard work has certainly paid off. It was good to connect with her, chat a little and get my copy signed!

As an introvert, I tend to need some quiet time after spending the day smiling at people who have no intention of buying my books, so it was therapeutic to spend Sunday out on the hills. I was thrilled to come across a dark green fritillary sunning itself, and even happier when it sat around long enough for me to take a fairly decent photo with my phone.
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Perhaps because I lack the skill to paint it, the scintillating scenery failed to furnish the inspiration for my response to the latest flash fiction prompt. Now I’ve found my story, however, I can trace the influences from being busy, Elizabeth Cook’s novel (because God has a big part in the characters’ lives) to the butterfly that looks as if it was named by someone who is colour blind:
Painting the butterflies

On the fifth day, God created the birds and beasts. But, as midnight loomed, he still hadn’t started on the invertebrates, so he delegated them to the angels. The angels, however, were too ham-fisted to paint the delicate wings of the moths and butterflies, so they handed over the brushes and paint pots to the elves. All the colours of the spectrum, apart from dark green, which ran out painting the rainforest on the third day. It was a minute to midnight when they checked God’s list, which is why the dark green fritillary is primarily orange and black.

A quick reminder you can vote for my cover – or any of the others – over on Author Shout, before the final photo of this post. Click on the image to see my reviews of this month’s ten novels, including You Would Have Missed Me by Birgit Vanderbeke which earned a rare five stars.
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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
geoff
2/7/2019 11:36:44 pm

I don't want to be a nerd, and you may know this and are teasing us in your post but the dark green colour occurs as with a lot of British fritillaries on its underwing - see the Silver washed and the two pearl bordered (small and large) as well as the High Brown... the upper wings of each are very similar (though not the silver washed)... ah this takes me back to my dad and chasing all these varieties in the New Forest in the 1970s. I doubt they'd be so many now sadly... The flash though splendid and appeals to the surreal in me...

Reply
Anne Goodwin
3/7/2019 11:44:55 am

Geoff, you’re much more knowledgeable than me in the lepidoptera department, as in many others, and you’re welcome to be a nerd. I did know about the green underwing but still think it’s misnamed, although, to be fair, it’s most often seen in flight. Unless you’re saying because I didn’t see the underwing it could be a high brown rather than a dark green? Either way, I’m chuffed I got a photo – perhaps a sad indictment of how scarce butterflies are today.

Reply
Norah Colvin
3/7/2019 11:49:31 am

I have voted for the cover of Sugar and Snails, Anne, and wish you well with the results. You're not at the top yet, but hopefully by the end of the week you will be. It would be great for promotion of your wonderful book. I couldn't see anyway on the page to share it so people will just have to pop over from here each day. :)
Your poster looks great, especially with the photo of you and each of your three books.
I watched the introduction to your video and will watch the rest later (someone will - me!)
You Would Have Missed Me is one that I have already bookmarked to read as time permits.
I love your myth about the colours of the butterflies. Trust Geoff to bring science into it. :) It doesn't spoil a good story though.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
6/7/2019 04:48:59 pm

Thanks for voting, Norah. At the moment – and I think it's the last day – I'm in fourth place, which doesn't sound bad until you see that I have 1.1% of the votes and the leader has 56.2%! I'd need almost 1000 more votes to hit second place. So I doubt I'll bother putting my other covers to the test – even though, obviously, I think they're fab.
Glad you liked the flash. Who needs science when the Bible tells it all?

Reply
Charli Mills link
4/7/2019 03:18:19 am

A busy time among strangers, hawking a book and reading in a hot tent deserves a day portrayed in your photos. I"m glad Geoff chimed in, as his experience as a nerd in the moth and butterfly arena has fascinated me. Recently, My niece visited (to help paint!) and her husband was showing their seven-year-old how to spot larve and eggs. Such a wholesome pursuit, sharpening keen interest in life. And your flash has fun with the mythology side of reasoning strange names of identification. Ran out of green paint! Kind of like we did on Sunday!

Reply
Anne Goodwin
6/7/2019 04:51:05 pm

Thanks, Charli, maybe when things are settled down you can go back to your walls and paint butterflies!

Reply



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    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
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    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

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    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

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