Lots of links

I was just reading the Friday Novel Racers’ Coffee blog, brought to us this week by BE Sanderson and I’ve ground to a halt before making my own comment.

The reason I stopped is to come here and write about something that’s been in my head for a week or more. I suddenly realised that I haven’t done it and while I know others have posted about it and you’ll already have seen it, I want to add my bit too.

If you look left to my sidebar, you’ll see a rather striking book jacket for Caroline Smailes’ ebook, Disraeli Avenue, which you can download here. The book jacket has been made into a widget by the clever and talented Stray (who I know through a non cyber life too). You should all know by now that Disraeli Avenue tells back stories about the folk we met through Jude in Caroline’s debut novel, In Search of Adam. It’s a tough subject, exquisitely told.

Caroline is asking where possible we make a donation to One in Four, a charity that helps people who have experienced sexual abuse. Research shows that one in four children experiences sexual abuse before the age of 18. Any child being abused is too many, but that’s a horrible number to contemplate. What that makes me feel as a mother, aunt, godless parent for the children around me, is terror and fury.

If you want you can add your own secret to the widgety thing that Stray made – I’ve done it. I keep looking at that widget; I’ve sat looking at for quite some time, with the secrets rotating past… And it makes me realise that even without any incidence of abuse, we humans are fragile creatures. We’re full of anxiety, vulnerability and fear. We’re happy too, which is great, but we don’t always feel we deserve it.

So if you’re in a position to donate, please do. And don’t forget to download Caroline’s ebook Disraeli Avenue, too.

Books and Lots of Links

Much as I love blogging and emails there is nothing quite like receiving real correspondence the old fashioned way.

In our condos any parcel too big for the apartments’ mail box stay in the management office. They put a piece of paper in the mail box asking you to come and collect a parcel which can cause a surge of excitement. Mostly this is a deeply disappointing, but large, package of junk mail redirected from our UK address but occasionally it’s something interesting. Today it was a parcel courtesy of Amazon.

Because I buy too many books, I couldn’t quite remember what I’d ordered, so it was with anticipation that I ripped it open. And this is what I found:

Mad Dogs by Robert Muchamore: For Son, who loves the Cherub series. (Oh my god, just been to the link. He's sooooo young....)

The Secret River by Kate Grenville: December's Book Club book, proving hard to buy in Bangkok.

The Door by Magda Szabo: January's Book Club book: I thought while I was buying one I might as well get the next one too.

Neris and India's Idiot-proof Diet by India Knight and Neris Thomas: Hmmm, well always the optimist, this could be the One to make a difference.

No Laughing Matter and A Ghost of a Chance by Peter Guttridge: I ordered these because Peter Guttridge is the tutor doing the Writer's Lab course at Skyros in Koh Chang, which is where I am booked to spend Christmas! I am sure I will enjoy them as well as wishing to do my 'homework.' He is also crime fiction critic for The Observer and Writing Fellow at Southampton University. Did I say how excited I am?