Why I want to 'Take a Break' with 'Woman's Weekly' and 'People's Friend'.

I want to take a break with these magazines because I love the stories! Of course a novel is lovely to curl up with and lose yourself in for a few hours, but there isn't always time to spare. That's where the excellent fiction in magazines comes in. For a few minutes, you can whisk yourself away wherever the author wants to take you. For example, in this month's Take a Break's Fiction Feast you're transported to the Mediterranean, Cornwall, and the world of TV!
I've grown to love all the authors too. Some are regulars like Geraldine Ryan and Teresa Ashby who has three stories in the current issue of Woman's Weekly Fiction Special! Others are short story experts like Della Galton (How to Write and Sell Short Stories) who has stories in both Fiction Feast and People's Friend Fiction Special, and Paula Williams who has an Inspiration column in Writers' Forum where, amongst other ideas for would-be writers, she wrote about the inspiration for an unusual story published in Woman's Weekly about a man and an eleven-year-old boy climbing a mountain.
So I'm really enjoying them, the only problem is the growing pile of magazines beside my bed!

Have you read Dot Scribbles' reviews?

Hello, have you read Dot Scribbles' reviews?
http://dot-scribbles.blogspot.com/
I was surfing the net, looking for something else, when I came across her blog, and in my photo are just some of the books she's covered. She's trying the Book Chick City Reading Challenge to read 100 books in a year.
http://www.bookchickcity.com/2010/12/sign-up-100-books-in-year-reading.html
To prove she's doing it, she blogs a review for each one. It's well worth a visit.
I wish that I had the time to read like that, but perhaps she reads very fast! I always have a pile to read, and have to stop myself from buying more, but it's very hard!
At the moment, I'm reading The Distant Hours by Kate Morton which I think will take some time as it has 600 pages! However, I'm getting into the story of Edie and Milderhurst Castle, and the secrets of the three sisters who live there and who took Edie's mother in as an evacuee in the war.
I've also just read a story by Kathleen Conlon in the current Women's Weekly Fiction special (Issue 4: 2011), called Serenity and Solicitude about Isabel who moved to the country after the war and was befriended by the two elderly women who lived next door as a refuge from her arguing parents. The story tells how these two ladies came to live together under very surprising circumstances, and how their mutual understanding helped Isabel see her own life in a new light. I loved this story and will look out for some more work by this author.

I Loved Getting Away With It by Julie Cohen!

I really loved Julie Cohen's new book Getting Away With It! If you remember, in my earlier blog, I went to the book launch in Reading Library.
Ok, at first, I didn't like Liza very much, but I don't think I was meant to as a contrast to her hardworking, charitable twin, Lee. But as I read on, I found myself rooting for her as she tried so hard to pretend to be her sister and cover up for her disappearance. And the finale in the final pages was straight out of Hollywood!
I know Wiltshire quite well, and it was fun to guess where Stoneguard might actually be.
It was also interesting to watch Exile this week on BBC One with the excellent John Simm and Jim Broadbent. Although the story went in a completely different direction and was more of a tragedy, the elements were the same although in that case it was the long lost brother returning, and the father who had Alzheimer's.
And the beetroot and horseradish in the photograph? You'll have to read Julie's book to find out!

Easter at Cliveden

The sun shone so brightly on Good Friday that we decided to have a day out at Cliveden, a beautiful National Trust property near Maidenhead. Our SatNav with the voice of Homer Simpson, "You have reached your destination, and you can hold your head up high, for you are a genius!", took us to an entrance where we had to walk miles to even reach the house, but we saw the gardens on the way and I even managed to get my National Trust passport stamped in the shop. We had our picnic in a wooded glade by a little lake, but not too far to go back for ice creams!
The formal gardens were full of tulips and forget-me-nots, but with Easter being so late, were really past their best. Having been to Florence and Rome since my last trip to Cliveden, I could really appreciate the Italian architecture, and the balustrade which had been purchased from the Villa Borghese which we had visited in Rome. All in all, a fantastic day out.

Agatha Christie

When I was in Torquay recently, I saw this bust of Agatha Christie who was born there in 1890. She wrote over 80 detective novels which were translated into more 103 languages. Known the world over for Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, her books have been produced for stage, film and television. Her play The Mousetrap has run for over 23,000 performances.
She famously disappeared for 11 days in 1926, and to date there has been no real explanation. Her maiden name was Miller, and she married Archibald Christie, an aviator on Christmas Eve 1914. They divorced in 1928 and she married Max Mallowan in 1930. She spent many happy years in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, and is buried in the graveyard at Cholsey. The town has produced a leaflet called the Dame Agatha Christie Trail which takes you from the Corn Exchange in the Market Place, where she was the President of the Sinodun Players from 1951 to her death in 1976, to St Mary's in Cholsey and back again via The Red Lion.
www.wallingford.co.uk

Spencer's Mountain by Earl Hamner Jr.

I bought this book on a recent visit to Schuyler, Virginia, where Earl Hamner Jr. based his stories of Walton's Mountain. This is the original book, but it took a little while getting used to 'John-Boy' being 'Clay-Boy' and 'Elizabeth' being 'Patty-Cake'!! Thankfully 'Olivia' is still 'Olivia'! Also, although we are told not to write in the way people speak, but to give just a suggestion by using key words etc, Earl Hamner Jr. uses 'goen', 'loven', 'sawen' etc, which again takes time 'getten' used to.
However, the book doesn't disappoint. It's on familiar ground if you loved The Waltons. And you can almost hear the music playing as you pick up the book which tells of Clay Spencer, the father, building his house on Spencer's Mountain from the trees that grow there, and Clay-Boy's attempts to get a place at the University of Richmond, whilst Olivia gives birth to twins and seemingly just gets on cooking enormous meals for her family of nine other children and her in-laws! Well, how times change, but I expect Grandma and the older girls give a hand with the chores indoors, which he forgets to mention!
All in all, if you loved The Waltons, you'll love this book, and if you can ever get yourself to Schuyler,Virginia, you'll love that too!

Julie Cohen's Book Launch - 'Getting Away With It'

Have you ever tried beetroot and horseradish ice cream? No, neither had I, until I went to the celebration of the publication of Julie Cohen's new book Getting Away With It at Reading Library last night. There was quite a crowd there from staunch library supporters who had been to various evenings at the library, and had come to Julie's event to find out all about her exciting new book, to her own supporters from Reading Writers and the local Romantic Novelists, plus her agent, Teresa Chris and her editor, Sherise Hobbs, of Headline.
Everyone one was treated to some complementary fizz and some Purbeck Ice Cream, because in the book, the protagonists make the beetroot and horseradish flavour. (As to why, you'll have to read it!) It's made from the true ingredients and it's interesting that although Julie thought the finished colour would be magenta, it's the colour of strawberry ice cream, because beetroot juice is what they use to colour it!
All in all it was a lovely evening, thanks to the library staff. And the ice cream? A strange flavour which sat somewhere between an accompaniment for cold roast beef or mackerel, and dessert! We all agreed we loved it and I hope that you'll love Julie's book too!