• Home
  • Blog
  • Only May
  • Wild Spinning Girls
  • Snow Sisters
  • Ghostbird
  • Contact

Making it up as I go along

Making it up as I go along

Monthly Archives: December 2019

Book list 2019

31 Tuesday Dec 2019

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

Book List 2019

Books I read throughout 2019

There were several contenders for ‘favourite’ this year but as I read, the list lengthened. In the end, I’ve decided not to choose a favourite per se because when I’m reading a book I adore, in the moment, that’s my favourite.
(Books marked with a * are those I have reread.)

Boy, Snow, Bird ~ Helen Oydyemi
After the Party ~ Cressida Connelly
A Modern Family ~ Helga Flatland
Old Baggage ~ Lissa Evans
The Heart’s Invisible Furies ~ John Boyne
The Fireman ~ Joe Hill
La Belle Sauvage ~ Philip Pullman
Northern Lights ~ Philip Pullman *
Our House ~ Louise Candish
Sharp Objects ~ Gillian Flynn
Sister, Sister ~ Sue Fortin
Waltzing Through Flaws ~ Paula Sharp *
The Rules of Magic ~ Alice Hoffman
Rather to be Pitied ~ Jan Newton
A Perfect Explanation ~ Eleanor Anstruther


The Summer We All Ran Away ~ Cassandra Parkin
The Paris Wife ~ Paula McLain
Take Nothing With You ~ Patrick Gale
The Beach Hut ~ Cassandra Parkin
Everything Under ~ Daisy Johnson
Transcription ~ Kate Atkinson
The Daughters of Ironbridge ~ Molly Walton
The Brighton Mermaid ~ Dorothy Koomson
Once Upon a River ~ Diane Setterfield
The Slaughterman ~ Cassandra Parkin
Thin Air ~ Michelle Paver
The Crow Trap ~ Anne Cleeves
Telling Tales ~ Anne Cleeves
Riverflow ~ Alison Layland
Himself ~ Jess Kidd
Odd Girl Out ~ Elizabeth Jane Howard
The Dancers Dancing ~ Éilís Ní Dhuibhne
The Hoarder ~ Jess Kidd
The Dust That Falls From Dreams ~ Louis de Bernières
Lanny ~ Max Porter
The Lie Tree ~ Frances Hardinge *
The Memory Book ~ Rowan Coleman
Señor Vivo & the Coca Lord ~ Louis de Bernières
True Colours ~ Kristen Hannah
Falling ~ Elizabeth Howard
Rebecca ~ Daphne du Maurier *
Wise Children ~ Angela Carter *
The Girl at the Window ~ Rowman Coleman
Jane Eyre ~ Charlotte Brontë *
None So Blind ~ Alis Hawkins
Violet ~ SJI Holliday
The Home ~ Sarah Stovell
Wakenhyrst ~ Michelle Paver
In the Absence of Miracles ~ Michael J Malone
I Am Dust ~ Louise Beech
Childhood ~ Tove Ditlevsen

Writing the wrongs

15 Sunday Dec 2019

Posted by Carol Lovekin in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Muse, New story, Word Birds, Writing

It is highly likely, dear reader, I could be tempted into wordy confabulation (see?) when it needs only my best & simplest words to adequately convey what I feel. The hell in a handcart shenanigans I predicted have occurred. It gives me no pleasure to be proved right. Being right about something so wrong is awful. Like almost everyone I know, this feels like a dark time. I’m not in the mood for hopeful memes or well-meaning platitudes – hope for too many people has been ravaged. Our hearts are hurting.

Saddened by what I see as a squandered political opportunity, I turn to that which gives me, on a very personal level, a measure of hope. When despair strikes, write. Reach for the words.

Mistress Crow has been ubiquitous. Landing in the skeletal birch tree, her feathered finery silhouetted against wintry skies, she’s been eyeing me for a few weeks now. Or so it seems. I try not to anthropomorphise wild creatures & resist the temptation to second guess a bird. But the version of me who toys with the idea of a muse can’t give up on the idea that some of the words I conjure arrive via some magical, possibly birdy, portal.

My next quest, should I choose to accept it, is to write the right book. Finish #Book4 – all 89,000 words of it? I still don’t know & the reason is simple: the singular voice of #Book5 will not be still. Like Mistress Crow, she perches, peripheral & illusory, whispering her intriguing, scary first person present words in my ear. And I can’t shake her off.

Come the next new moon – Boxing Day therefore perfectly placed – I have a decision to make. The write one… Right?

Onward & sideways, as my mother used to say… Not least about shenanigans.

My novels

Wild Spinning Girls
Wild Spinning Girls
Snow Sisters
Snow Sisters
Ghostbird
Ghostbird
Only May
Only May
Follow Making it up as I go along on WordPress.com

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 166 other subscribers

© Carol Lovekin and Making It Up As I Go Along, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Carol Lovekin and Making It Up As I Go Along with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Archives

Blogroll

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Facebook

Facebook

Tags

#NotTheBooker Authors Ballet Beach Birds Blodeuwedd Bloggers Blog Tour Book 3 Book 4 Book Fair Book Review Books Countdown Crow Drafts Dylan Thomas Editing Editor Edna O'Brien Extract Family Feminism First Lines Friends Genre Ghostbird Ghosts Ghost Story Glittering Prizes Guest Post Honno Interview Island Life IWD Janet Janey Judith Barrow Letter to America Llandeilo Lockdown Magic Mist Muse Mythology New story Not Writing Only May Photographs Process Public speaking Publishing Quotations Readers Reading Review Reviews RiverBook SisterBook Sky Snow Sisters Social Media Storyteller Structural Edits Titles Traditional Publishing Virginia Woolf Wild Spinning Girls Word Birds Workshops Writers Writing Writing Advice Writing Group Writing rituals

Archives

  • August 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • September 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • April 2021
  • February 2021
  • November 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
“The vote means nothing to women. We should be armed" ~ Edna O'Brien

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • Making it up as I go along
    • Join 166 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Making it up as I go along
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...