I'm currently proof reading my new novel 'The Closer I Get', which is published by Orenda Books on July 11 (May 11 e-book), while also working on my next novel and doing the various things most authors do in order to help pay the bills – in my case, running Polari literary events up and down the country. (Please see the website for more details - www.polarisalon.com)
Soon the submissions for this year's Polari Prize will start arriving and my reading pile – correction, reading tower – is already threatening to topple over and collapse on me. Which would be a pretty poetic way to go, I suppose.
I’ve also been reading a lot. Some books I haven’t blogged about due to lack of time or because I mainly blog about crime fiction, which is the genre where I feel most at home.
So, let me start with The Thriller That Won’t Be Named. I had high hopes for this, having enjoyed the previous book by the same author(s). But oh dear, it was bad. So bad I eventually gave up on it, which is something I very rarely do.
On a happier note, I also read 'Gillespie and I' by Jane Harris, which I loved. I don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but Jane performed at Polari in Hastings recently and I was enraptured. It’s a wonderful story, beautifully told. Definitely a book I’d recommend.
Staying in Hastings, I also read my pal VG Lee’s new short story collection 'Oh You Pretty Thing’, which is every bit as good if not better than her earlier collection ‘As You Step Outside’. Plus it has a book cover which Tracey Thorn was moved to tweet about, saying how much she loved it. Funny and wise, this is another book I'd urge you to buy.
And weeks after reading it, I can’t get Julie Cohen’s ‘Louis & Louise’ out of my mind. Such a brilliant book, with a great premise - one life lived, once as a man and once as a woman.
Next on my reading list are ’Sweet Sorrow’ by David Nicholls, 'This Brutal House' by Niven Govinden and a selection of crime novels I’m either reviewing, reading in preparation for upcoming panel events or giving advance quotes for.
But now I’m getting back to my proofs!