Exclusive interview with author Claire Fayers

When I’m in schools, I’m often asked for book recommendations, and Claire Fayers’ new novel, Storm Hound, has been top of my list ever since I read it. It has the best opening paragraph EVER!
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So I’m super excited that she agreed to an interview …
What are you working on now? Is there a potential sequel to Storm Hound?
I’m currently working on a couple of new proposals to send in to my publisher. It’s too soon to say which one will be my next book but I’m having great fun playing with ideas. I would love to write a Storm Hound sequel. It’ll be up to my publisher but if Storm Hound does well you never know. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
Could you share any childhood pics either of you in the Welsh hills or of you writing?
I wish I could, but my parents didn’t take any pictures of me when I was growing up. All I have is one photograph of me holding my cello after I won the cup for music in primary school. Everyone assumed I’d grow up to be a music teacher. I didn’t know it was possible to be an author back then.
thumbnail_Claire as child
To make up for the lack of photos, here’s a pic of an early story I wrote in school. I liked writing about animals even then!
horse story 1
And here’s another of me taken last year, sitting on top of Mount Skirrid where Storm fell from the sky.
thumbnail_Claire on Skirrid
Did you have any pets as a child?
Yes, loads. We had guinea pigs, a rabbit, two dogs and a succession of hamsters (not all at the same time, I hasten to add!) But the pet that I truly loved above all others was my cat Mitzi. She was an ordinary black and white moggy. She died when I was about twelve and I didn’t get another cat until I owned my own home, much later. Obviously, I had to write a cat into Storm Hound – look out for Nutmeg.
What are your top tip for parents to encourage their youngsters to write?
Fill your house with books. Make regular trips to the library with your children as a love of writing usually starts with a love of reading. Make up stories with your children. Lead by example and set aside some time to write together. Keep a stash of fun pens and paper in different colours. Don’t correct or criticise your children’s efforts. Encourage them to write letters to relatives (and get the relatives to write back – nothing beats getting your very own letter through the post!)
And before you go, this is a tricky one: Michael Morpugo or Phillip Pullman?
Oh gosh. They are both masters, and their books are so different it’s hard to choose. But my reading (and writing) habits do tend to go towards fantasy so I’d have to say Pullman.
Thanks so much for a fun interview.
Thanks Claire! I didn’t know you played cello and wrote stories about horses as a kid – me too.
If you haven’t come across Claire before, here’s some more info.

Biography

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Claire Fayers grew up in South Wales, studied English at the University of Kent, and is now back in Wales where she spends a lot of her free time tramping around castles in the rain, looking for dragons.

She has worked as a church caretaker, a shoe shop assistant, in accountancy, in health and safety, in IT, and in a library. Only one of these prepared her in any way for life as a full-time author. She works from her home in Cardiff, sharing her workspace with a pair of demanding cats and an ever-expanding set of model dinosaurs. Storm Hound is her fourth book for Macmillan Children’s Books.

Website www.clairefayers.com

twitter @clairefayers

facebook www.facebook.com/clairefayersauthor

 

Blurb

Storm of Odin is the youngest stormhound of the Wild Hunt that haunts lightning-filled skies. He has longed for the time when he will be able to join his brothers and sisters but on his very first hunt he finds he can’t keep up and falls to earth, landing on the A40 just outside Abergavenny.

Enter twelve-year-old Jessica Price, who finds and adopts a cute puppy from an animal rescue centre. And suddenly, a number of strange people seem very interested in her and her new pet, Storm. People who seem to know a lot about magic . . .

In Claire Fayers’ electrifying adventure Storm Hound, Jessica starts to see that there’s something different about her beloved dog and will need to work out which of her new friends she can trust.

Anyone for pom pom sushi?

Every time my nephews and nieces get together, we try a new craft activity. They range from 4 to 15 so it’s quite challenging to find something that they’ll all enjoy. Since I’m always searching for new ideas (I actually keep a whole Pinterest board just for this – its become a tradition and the pressure is on for each to be better than the previous one), Let’s Make Pom Poms caught my attention.

I didn’t realise there were so many things you could do with a pompom, although I’m not sure anyone will ever need sushi pom poms? My personal favourite was the key ring but the kids voted for the Easter chicks, and since that’s seasonal, and I had some left over yellow wool from another project, that was easy.

There are other seasonal projects too. The spiders would be a great Halloween project, but I’d use black wool. And the snowman is a must for Christmas.

The instructions in the book are clear and simple. My only criticism is that it could do with measurements so you can make your own cardboard rings (old school style, using a cereal box), rather than having to buy the plastic ones. Cheaper, and more environmentally friendly. And it’s not difficult. As I didn’t want to buy seven rings just for one afternoon activity, I guesstimated. Obviously I miscalculated a bit as our chicks are hens. It was great fun though.

I love a spot of crafting and happily recommend this as a family friendly activity.

Let’s Make Pom Poms

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Fun and easy makes for all the family. Get crafty with pom poms with 15 easy to follow step by step guides. Make your own set of fluffy dice, sushi that looks good enough to eat and an everlasting Christmas tree as well as many other exciting projects

Purchase Links:

UK – https://amzn.to/2PdVBax

US – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KZLCBPG

 

Author Bio – Katie Scott is a craft and book blogger who lives in the county of Kent, UK. Living at home with her husband and infant daughter, Katie loves nothing more than long evenings in with a good book, a pile of crafting goodies and a very large pot of tea.

Let’s Make Pom Poms is her first crafting book.

Find more work from Katie Scott on her blog: https://www.bloomingfiction.co.uk

Social Media Links –

Twitter – https://twitter.com/bloomingfiction

Facebook –  https://www.facebook.com/BloomingFiction/

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/bloomingfiction/

Pinterest- https://www.pinterest.co.uk/bfbookblog/pins/

 

 

 

 

(Legal) street art for all ages

“Please bring in some of the art you’ve done at home,” the teacher asks.

That’s going to be a little bit tricky …

Don’t worry, the garage doors were being replaced, and I’m thrilled with my colourful garage interior.

I adore street art. Several years ago Chichester did an amazing street art exhibition. These make a very teenager friendly alternative art tour. Plus I’m always up for a bit of stealth education.

Sadly my favourite, “King of Cats”, was whitewashed over recently by the council following complaints about antisocial behaviour. Personally I’m happy that the Belgian artist, Joachim, has provided a new masterpiece for us to enjoy. The Chichester Observer reported

Joachim’s management said he had been ‘horrified’ to hear his King of Cats mural ‘attracted antisocial behaviour’ within the city of Chichester and took it upon himself to put things right. Knowing that cats can be rather antisocial by nature, Joachim decided to paint ‘The Watchdog’ to watch over the streets and keep the neighbourhood safe.

King of Cats

King of Cats by Belgian artist Joaquim

Back to our budding vandal. It was really no surprise that he wanted a graffiti birthday party. Near Waterloo Station in London is Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel where anyone, armed with a spray can or two, is permitted to make their mark, without getting arrested. The tunnel was originally created by Banksy although his artwork is long gone.

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Luckily, his friends are urban cool, and their parents super chilled, so there was barely a raised eyebrow.

The toughest decision was what to paint over, because all the art was amazing, but eventually the spot was chosen and after a tentative start they all got into it.

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Leake Street Graffiti Tunnel

Top tips if you’re thinking of taking the kids

  • buy the cheapest spray paint you can as they race through it
  • painting masks from the DIY store hopefully helped with the fumes, but it was outdoors so it wasn’t too bad
  • surgical gloves are a very good idea! I bought a box of 100 from the local chemist.

The other artists working on the same day were super friendly and showed the kids how they used stencils in their designs.

There are official “street art” walking tours in various towns if you’re interested in exploring but unsure where to start. I was looking at the Shoreditch Street Art tour which I haven’t done but it’s on the list.

And since this is also a book blog, here’s a little bit of bookish news

Purely by coincidence, I just finished reading Revenge on the Rye by Alice Castle about the murder of a street artist, which I highly recommend. I blogged about this a few weeks ago.

 

Migraine health plan handbook and GIVEAWAY

This book caught my eye as my dad suffers from vertigo. He eats a very “traditional” British home cooked diet with zero fast food and limited sugar anyway, so I was curious what changes he could make.

The Migraine Relief Plan 9781572842090

I found the eight-week transition plan made the shift seem entirely manageable: week one is just assessing the current position, then you have a whole week to sort your fridge and another to sort your freezer. Then you tackle changing breakfasts, then lunches then dinners.

There is a checklist of good/ bad foods, but the best bit is the recipes. These are proper easy meals that my family enjoyed. They are American, but conversions are included, and most of the ingredients are recognisable. In fact my only criticism is, as with all cookbooks, I find them hard to use on a kindle.

To prove just how achievable the recipes are, here’s an example …

SALMON, ASPARAGUS, AND THYME OMELET

Makes 2 servings

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 12–15 minutes

Passive time: N/A

Budget friendly: Very

Per serving: 21g protein, 2g carbohydrates, 21g fat, 5g saturated fat, 129mg sodium, 383mg potassium, 0g fiber

You’ll find that omelets are an easy way to get breakfast or dinner on the table. This simple recipe came about when I had just a small amount of baked salmon left over, and we didn’t eat all the asparagus spears the previous night. I’m lucky to have fresh thyme growing in my garden, which adds lovely flavor, but dried thyme also works perfectly. Asparagus is high in insulin, one of the prebiotic fibers that feeds your good gut bacteria, and is another anti-inflammatory powerhouse.

4 ounces (120g) cooked salmon

3–4 spears fresh or frozen asparagus

12 sprigs fresh thyme, or ¼teaspoon dried thyme (optional)

2 eggs

1–2 tablespoons (15–30mL) heavy cream, half-and-half, or coconut milk

1 tablespoon ghee, organic extra virgin olive oil, or extra virgin coconut oil

  1. Flake the salmon into a bowl.
  2. Cut the asparagus into bite-sized chunks and, if using fresh thyme, strip off the leaves (discard the stems).
  3. Whisk the eggs with the cream and add the thyme leaves or dried thyme. Set aside.
  4. Place a nonstick frying pan over medium heat, add the ghee, and swirl the pan to coat. Look for the ghee to start to shimmer before adding the asparagus.
  5. Add the asparagus and sauté for 5 to 7 minutes.
  6. Add the salmon and sauté another 2 to 3 minutes until the pieces start to turn golden.
  7. Add the egg mixture to the pan. Cook about 5 minutes until nearly set, tilting the pan if necessary to move unset eggs to the edges.
  8. Slide a flexible spatula under the omelet, loosening it, then fold in half.
  9. Cook another 5 minutes, or until completely set. Serve right away.

COOKS’ NOTE: This is the perfect way to use up leftover cooked salmon, which never tastes good microwaved. Canned, unsmoked salmon with no salt added is a fine substitute. Smoked salmon is not included on the migraine diet because smoked and preserved foods contain tyramine, a monoamine compound that triggers migraine attacks in some people. If using leftover pre-cooked asparagus, add it with the salmon during Step 6.

Reprinted with permission from The Migraine Relief Planby Stephanie Weaver, MPH, CWHC, Agate Surrey, 2017

 

Or I bet you can’t resist this …

Happy Book Birthday-all

Giveaway

I’m so excited about this giveaway, I wish I could enter myself as I only had a kindle copy and I really need a paperback for ease of reference.

Exclusive for readers of my Book Blast Blog, you can win either a signed copy of The Migraine Relief Plan for US winners, or an unsigned copy of The Migraine Relief Plan for UK winners. To enter, just follow my blog, and tag @Lexi_Rees and @sweavermph and on a tweet telling us why you would like a copy.

The Migraine Relief Plan: An 8-Week Transition to Better Eating, Fewer Headaches, and Optimal Health

In The Migraine Relief Plan, certified health and wellness coach Stephanie Weaver outlines a new, step-by-step lifestyle approach to reducing migraine frequency and severity.

Using the latest research, her own migraine diagnosis, and extensive testing, Weaver has designed an accessible plan to help those living with migraine, headaches, or Meniere’s disease. Over the course of eight weeks, the plan gradually transitions readers into a healthier lifestyle, including key behaviors such as regular sleep, trigger-free eating, gentle exercise, and relaxation techniques. The book also collects resources—shopping lists, meal plans, symptom tracking charts, and kitchen-tested recipes for breakfast, lunch, snacks, and dinner—to provide readers with the tools they need to be successful.

The Migraine Relief Planencourages readers to eat within the guidelines while still helping them follow personal dietary choices, like vegan or Paleo, and navigate challenges, such as parties, work, and travel. A must-have resource for anyone who lives with head pain, this book will inspire you to rethink your attitude toward health and wellness.

Purchase Linkhttp://bit.ly/MRPlan

Author Bio

The Migraine - VerticalBlueDoor

Stephanie Weaver, MPH, CWHC, is an author, blogger, and certified wellness and health coach. Her recipes have been featured in Cosmopolitan, Bon Appetit, Cooking Light, Parade, and more. She lives in San Diego, CA.

Social Media Links –

https://www.facebook.com/stephanieweavermph

Twitter.com/sweavermph

Instagram.com/sweavermph

 

 

Beach hut escapades

Every time I walk my dog past the cute wooden huts on West Wittering beach, I dream of owning one. I’ve even got a shortlist of my favourites. I chat to the owners of several regularly and they tend to be passed down the generations, and every hut has a story to tell. So fellow Chindi author Angela Petch’s latest book, Mavis & Dot, totally appeals. For the avoidance of doubt – this is a grown up book not a kids book! It was written in memory of a friend who passed away from ovarian cancer, and the icing on the cake is that all profits from Mavis and Dot will go towards cancer research, so I’m adding this to my “to be read pile”. Now I just need the weather to warm up a bit – deck chair and thermos at the ready, since we’re going a bit retro.

Mavis and Dot Front Cover in RGB mode for screens jpg

Anyway, I’ve invited Angela onto my blog to chat about the themes and inspiration for her book, so over to her.

Loneliness and Kindness

Mavis and Dot are two very different ladies who retire to the Sussex seaside at about the same time. They forge an unlikely friendship and end up having a few adventures together. I don’t think for a moment that they set out to be kind for a reason, but they end up helping each other through their loneliness. True kindness lies within giving, without expecting a return.

When Mavis— always on a mission to lose the inches— is incapacitated after a strenuous session of an exercise class (Bums and Tums), Dot came over as soon as she could, producing from her shopping bag a huge slab of fruit and nut chocolate.

‘I remember you saying this was your favourite. It was reduced at the Co-op because one end was a little melted, but it should taste fine. And I bought three fruit cakes. Their sell-by-date was last week but that doesn’t matter. It will act like penicillin for you, what?’ she chortled, ‘a little bit of mould will save you from having to take antibiotics.’

Mavis knew that Dot was only being kind but how was she supposed to shed pounds for her ballroom dancing classes with all these goodies wafted under her nose?

Dot needs support from her new friend later, even though she doesn’t realise. She’s a complex, prickly character. Mavis is the first person to whom she pours out her heart, after more than fifty years of keeping a personal tragedy to herself. Afterwards, they put on the kettle (there is a lot of tea drinking in Mavis and Dot).

‘Tea again,’ laughed Dot, ‘we’ll start to look like teapots.’

I loved William books, written by Richmal Crompton and all of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five Adventures when I was little. So, I’ve given Mavis and Dot some grown-up adventures. Dot comes across a couple of illegal immigrants hiding in a beach hut and she decides to rescue them, not without complications. She is determined to help them in their quest for a better life and invites them back to her house.

This act of kindness gains her a family. At the end of the book, after sharing Christmas Day with most of the characters in the book, Dot sits quietly by the fire.

It had been one of the best days, something to bottle for gloomier times. She thought about the unpredictability of life; how bad could be softened by good; how old clichés like “never give up” were so true. Because if anybody had told her this time last year, she would be spending December 25th with strangers who were now like family, she would have laughed in their face.

By the way, I love that her illustrations by Gill Kaye, editor of Sussex magazine, Ingenu/e are simple pencil sketches, like I used in Eternal Seas. Here’s one of Dot staking out the beach hut at night with her dog, because she’s convinced somebody is using it at night.

Stakeout

Blurb

Introducing two eccentric ladies who form an unlikely friendship.Meet Mavis and Dot – two colourful, retired ladies who live in Worthington-on-Sea, where there are charity shops galore. Apart from bargain hunting, they manage to tangle themselves in escapades involving illegal immigrants, night clubs, nude modelling, errant toupees and more. And then there’s Mal, the lovable dog who nobody else wants. A gently humorous, often side-splitting, heart-warming snapshot of two memorable characters with past secrets and passions. Escape for a couple of hours into this snapshot of a faded, British seaside town. You’ll laugh and cry but probably laugh more.

Biography

AP 20e

Angela Petch lives in the Tuscan Apennines in summer and Sussex in winter.

Her love affair with Italy was born at the age of seven when she moved with her family to Rome. Her father worked for the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and he made sure his children learned Italian and soaked up the culture. She studied Italian at the University of Kent at Canterbury and afterwards worked in Sicily where she met her husband. His Italian mother and British father met in Urbino in 1944 and married after a wartime romance.

Her first book, “Tuscan Roots” was written in 2012, for her Italian mother-in-law, Giuseppina, and also to make readers aware of the courage shown by families of her Italian neighbours during WW2. Signed by Bookouture in 2018, this book will be republished in June 2019. Another Tuscan novel has been commissioned for 2020.

“Now and Then in Tuscany”, a sequel, was published in April 2017 and features the same family. The background is the transhumance, a practice that started in Etruscan times and continued until the 1950s. Her research for her Tuscan novels is greatly helped by her knowledge of Italian and conversations with locals.

Although Italy is a passion, her stories are not always set in this country. “Mavis and Dot”, published at the end of 2018 and sold in aid of Cancer Research, tells the story of two fun-loving ladies who retire to the Sussex seaside. They forge an unlikely friendship and fall into a variety of adventures. Ingenu/e Magazine describes it as:“Absolutely Fabulous meets Last of the Summer Wine… a gently hilarious feel-good book that will enchant and delight…”.

A prize-winning author, member of CHINDI authors and the RNA, she also loves to travel and recently returned to Tanzania, where she lived at the start of her marriage. A keen tennis player and walker, she also enjoys spending time with her five grandchildren and inventing stories for their entertainment.

Her short stories are published by PRIMA and The People’s Friend.

Links

Angela’s Website and Blog

Facebook page

Twitter

Mavis & Dot book on Amazon