Hospital Radio is Great!

 I remember, way, way back, being in hospital after a road accident with an injured leg. All that I could find to listen to on the hospital radio set were the results of the General Election (I'm not telling you which year!) as they came in. These days, I might find that more interesting, but back then, in my teens, I couldn't care less about politics. But (for those of you who remember Margaret Thatcher), there was no alternative...

My mother used to tell me how, the day after I was born, she tried to listen to the radio and - same thing - all that was on were General Election results. Probably not ideal when you've just spent (according to her) a million hours in labour and need a bit of light relief.

So how fabulous that nowadays so many hospitals have their own radio stations to entertain the patients. Coventry Hospital Radio is having its 40th anniversary this year... and all sorts of celebrations are afoot. I had the privilege, on Saturday morning, to go into their studio, up on the 5th floor of Coventry University Hospital in Walsgrave, Coventry, and chat with the brilliant prizewinning host and DJ, Neil Wilkes, about books, libraries, writing, e-publishing and all sorts of other things.

I enjoyed it so much I almost forgot I was being interviewed for radio. I was worried I had waffled a bit, but Neil kindly assured me that I didn't. I mentioned the new e-version of Charity's Child and the joys (and challenges) of e-publishing. We talked about how sad it is that so many local libraries are closing, and how we all need to support them more. And I mentioned my new project of turning Coping with Chloe into a play.

So thank you, Neil, for having me on your Saturday morning show.  It was great fun and well worth getting up early for.

You can read more about Coventry Hospital Radio on the Facebook page here. Please 'like' and share with your friends.

Best wishes,
Ros

Why I love the Moomins - posting today on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure

I've posted today on the popular children's literature blog, 'An Awfully Big Blog Adventure'... on why Tove Jansson's Moomins will always be my favourite read...

Click here to view my post

Off to appear on Coventry Hospital Radio now! More about this soon...

Best wishes
Ros

The Crabbies - an evangelical Christian fellowship that went wrong...

... Or did it? Perhaps not. That's for you to decide, when you've read Charity's Child - Dark Deed or Virgin Birth?

If you belong to such a fellowship group or church, I would love to know what you think of the book. I have nothing against evangelical Christians and I still share some (though not all) of their beliefs. In the past, I've been involved in Christian groups that believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (known as the 'Special Blessing' in my book) and the associated spiritual gifts like prophecy and tongues.

I know that in any religious group, things can go wrong. Often it's a matter of personality clashes, domineering and bullying. Sometimes, the problems are very serious indeed.

I recently read an excellent novel about an evangelical fellowhip that went astray and became a cult - the aptly titled Going Astray, written by Christine Moore and published by Sunpenny Publishing. You can find it here.

In my book, Charity's Child, a young girl becomes pregnant and starts claiming that God has fathered her child. When the truth eventually emerges, a number of people end up blaming themselves. Are they right to shoulder such guilt? Was there anything anyone could have done and if so, what? And where does forgiveness, including self-forgiveness, figure in all this?

I've love to hear your thoughts, whatever your religious beliefs or lack of them.

You can download Charity's Child as an eBook for Amazon Kindle, price £1.94 here on Amazon.co.uk and price $3.11 here on Amazon.com.

Cover photo and design by Rob Tysall

Recommended age 14 - adult

Scary stuff... I'm reviewing today on ABBA

I'm reviewing Susan Price's collection of ghost stories, Overheard in a Graveyard today on An Awfully Big Blog Review.



Please pop over and say hello.

Can you write gay fiction if you are straight?

Maybe the answer to that is no. Actually, I'm not quite sure what Gay Fiction is - perhaps someone could enlighten me. All I read is fiction - whoever it's about and whoever it's written by, I just like a good story.

So, to be clear from the start, I happen to be straight but I have lots of friends, relatives and colleagues who are gay, so I feel as comfortable about putting homosexual characters in my books as I would characters with red, blond or black hair (or no hair at all), characters with physical disabilities, male characters, characters who live in the future or the past or are a different age, nationality or social background from myself. Of course I do. My fiction would be very sad and limited if I only ever wrote about me!

And part of the fun of writing is becoming someone else - tasting the world from a different point of view.

So is there are a problem? Maybe not, but when Charity's Child  first came out in paperback I did get a couple of remarks from people who tentatively and very politely suggested that perhaps I didn't know what I was talking about and shouldn't be trying to write from the point of view of a gay character.


That's the problem, I suppose, if there is one. Joanne, the narrator of Charity's Child, is a young lesbian, as is her friend Charity, though there is also some suggestion that Charity may be bisexual, as you'll discover if you read the book. So the question was, I suppose, 'How can you, a straight person, get inside the mind of a lesbian character sufficiently well to write convincingly with her voice?'

How successfully I achieved that aim can only be judged by my readers. It doesn't seem to me to be much different from my trying to write from the point of view of a man. Which is something that female authors do all the time, and vice versa - sometimes with great success and sometimes not.


As far as I can tell, there's a lack of fiction, especially YA fiction, with gay protagonists, so the more the  better, perhaps... whoever writes it?

Anyway, please tell me what you think, whether or not you've read the book. If you've read it, I'll be especially interested to hear your views.

Best wishes
Ros

Click to view Charity's Child on Amazon.co.uk

Click to view Charity's Child on Amazon.com

All sorted - Charity's Child is well and truly born (but who is the father?)

Whew! All sorted. My novel Charity's Child - Dark Deed or Virgin Birth? is now born (again!) and is live, kicking and raring to be read.

 Click here to see Charity's Child new Kindle version on Amazon

Speaking of being 'born again'... I didn't mean that to be an awful pun when I wrote it, but it does capture one of the themes of Charity's Child, which is set in a tiny evangelical Christian fellowship in the imaginary seaside town of Castlehaven on the Yorkshire coast. I wanted to explore what could happen in such a close-knit community of believers when an outsider arrives and unsettles everyone. Charity, aged fifteen, turns up at a prayer meeting one evening and for Joanne, a lonely young girl of the same age, it's love at first sight.

For Tom, the pastor, Charity brings trouble - an insistence on something called the 'Special Blessing', without which, she says, no one can be truly close to God. Charity's personal charisma and her enthusiasm for the 'spiritual gifts' associated with the special blessing soon become confused in the minds of many of the members of the Crabapple Christian Fellowship (or Crabbies, as they call themselves). Alan, the assistant pastor, develops a fixation on Charity which upsets Joanne, Alan's wife Louise and poor Tom, who is desperately trying to prevent his little flock from exploding into chaos.

Charity and Joanne are 'together', or so Joanne believes. Then Charity announces that she is pregnant. She refuses to name the father - in fact she assures Joanne she has not had sex with any man or boy. The father of her baby is, she claims, God Himself. God has given her His ultimate gift - His own child. Not a boy like Jesus but a girl, this time...

Joanne is sceptical, but she longs for assurance that Charity has not been unfaithful to her. The rest of the fellowship are not at all convinced. There is much speculation about who the father of Charity's child could be. Suspicion falls on Alan, and Tom wrestles with indecision and guilt - he has problems of his own.

Then Charity disappears...


As I said above, I wanted to explore what happens in a small, settled religious community when a charismatic and disruptive newcomer arrives. I made the community a Christian evangelical one, because long ago I was a member of several groups like this. I no longer share all the beliefs of evangelical Christians, but I have no axes to grind and my story should not be taken as criticism of religious faith of any kind. People are people... whatever they believe, whatever their background. If we are not careful, we distort our faith to suit our own predilections and concerns - and to soothe our fears. I believe that's part of what is going on in Charity's Child.

It was one of those books that you write without, for quite a long time, knowing how it is going to end. The revelation of who was the father came as a shock to me - one that still has me reeling.

I hope that the new e-edition will draw in some new readers. I would love to know what you think of Charity's story, either in a comment on my blog here, by email or in reviews on Amazon and similar sites. If you are a religious person (or indeed a convinced atheist), I'd be especially interested to know what you think.

Click here to see Charity's Child for Amazon Kindle (price £1.94)

  Recommended age 14+

 

I cannot believe I have been so careless!

Oh dear - this is from a rather red-faced Rosalie.

Today was meant to be the day I posted here about my novel  Charity's Child going live on Amazon Kindle - which it has! And until half an hour ago I was very excited and bursting to tell everyone. But then a very kind friend and colleague emailed me to point out that part of a review I have quoted in the Product Description could be taken the wrong way and cause offence. I must say I had not read it that way, and I don't expect the reviewer meant it that way either, but now I look at it again, I do see the problem.

I have edited out the offending phrase and resubmitted to Amazon KDP, but I guess the changes will take a couple of days to show up. So if anyone downloads my book in the meantime, please bear this in mind.

As soon as the new edition goes up, I will post the link, etc. And then I'll finally be able to celebrate properly!

Best wishes
Red-faced  Ros

Here's the cover of my book anyway, to be going on with!

OK, well Amazon have been very prompt in updating my Product Description, which is now fine, so here are the links:

Click to view on Amazon.co.uk

Click to view on Amazon.com