Desert Island Books - Choices from Timeslip novelist Alis Hawkins

Today I am a guest with Radio Lancashire on the Sally Naden Morning Show, and also visiting Historical Tapestry where they are reviewing The Gilded Lily. Whilst I am away, I am delighted to welcome playwright and novelist Alis Hawkins. 
A desert island might be a bit of a shock for Alis as she spent an idyllic childhood on a dairy farm in West Wales, before going on to read English at Oxford. No lofty spires on this desert island, only waving palms. Alis then went on to train as a speech and language therapist, which could come in handy if the island proves to be inhabited. She now works part time as a specialist in autism spectrum conditions and spends the rest of her time writing plays or novels.

Her first novel, a time-slip novel set in the great age of Cathedral-building, Testament, was published to acclaim in 2008. She wrote and directed a promenade play for Rochester cathedral in 2009, and as part of the Dickens bicentenary celebrations Rochester Cathedral commissioned her to write another Dickens- themed play to be performed in the Cathedral garth in June this year, which was also a great success.



Pride and Prejudice because it always makes me laugh and I suspect I shall need some laughs on the desert island - and because it's longstanding proof that you can write a genre novel (because what is it but a classic ' boy meets girl, girl hates boy, girl falls in love with reformed boy' love story) whilst, at the same time writing a literary classic!



Caitlin Moran's How to be a Woman because it's flayingly honest (which I always both like and admire) whilst being kind and killingly, knicker-threateningly amusing (see comments on the need for laughs above).



How to Play Folk Guitar. OK it's not a self-help book as such but it'll help me not to feel I'm completely missing out on the island. But you will, in time-honoured fashion, have to let me have the luxury of taking a guitar as well!

Thanks Alis, you might have to make your own guitar out of bamboo and shredded leaves!

Testament is available in hardback, paperback and e-book.
Blurb: When Damia Miller is employed to promote revered Kineton and Dacre college, it doesn’t take her long to recognise that a grotesque antique painting recently uncovered on one of the college’s walls might hold the key to the college’s future. Six hundred years earlier, master mason Simon of Kineton is preparing plans for his magnum opus, a college to rival anything in England. His work only interrupted when he becomes father to the son he has longed for for twenty years. In the present day, Damia grows increasingly obsessed with the mysterious wall-painting and the college’s dark history. What is the painting trying to tell her? Why was the college named after its mason as well as its founder? And who does the statue of the carefree boy in the Toby Yard represent? In mediaeval Salster, Simon of Kinnerton is struggling to come to terms with the fact that his son is disabled – cursed, in the eyes of many of Salster’s townspeople. But just as Simon himself is coming to accept young Toby a tragedy occurs whose repercussions will echo until the present day. Testament is a startling feat of imaginative skill, distinguished by the breadth of its vision, and by the heartbreaking story at its centre: that of the sacrifice a child made for his father, six hundred years ago.

Author Debra Brown is Castaway on a Desert Island

 Debra Brown is a romantic and a lover of history. 

She is the organiser of English Historical Fiction Authors well-respected blog, and the facebook group associated with it. Debra works tirelessly to promote historical fiction in all its genres. If you go there today you will see she is hosting a Giveaway of THE GILDED LILY. I am also at Tanzanite's Castle today.

Debra loves to read books and watch films where 'We can enter a world of wearing beautiful gowns each night to the dinner table and be served by butlers and dashing footmen. A world of polite conversation at balls and of gentlemen who do not turn their backs to a lady until he has excused himself from a conversation.'

It seems a shame to consign this woman of  indefatigable energy to my Desert Island, but sorry Debra, I've taken the boat.
Here are Debra Brown's Desert Island choices.

A Tale of Two Cities ~ I have actually never read it yet, and it is the bestseller in historical fiction.

For her second book, Debra asked me, "Does it have to be a novel? Because I am really hooked on The Schwarzbein Principle and The Schwarzbein Principle II right now and would love it if others had some exposure to it. If that is ok, here is why I like it."

It's a Desert Island, right. I thought I should be generous and allow Debra her choice. Go ahead Debra...

 We've all had so many different diets to try for health and weight issues, but we still struggle with weight and aging illnesses like Type II Diabetes and many others. These books, written by a diabetes doctor, start with how the diet and medication normally prescribed by doctors was making people fatter, sicker and more miserable. Her patients were asking for something different, something that would help.

She started working with them, asking them to try writing down everything they ate and medications, as well as their responses to such. She then asked them to cut back to smaller portions of balanced meals, five times a day. The books describe how that affects the body's insulin- which in turn affects the other hormones and neurotransmitters, etc.

As her patients applied what she had learned, she saw them become healthier and more youthful looking, including weight loss or gain as needed, while eating an abundance of good food throughout the day. One interesting point that has brightened my diet is that fats do not put weight on a person. To store fat, insulin is required- a person must have an insulin response and that can come only from eating carbohydrates. So  the key is to balance the proportions of the foods- enough carbs to make some insulin, but not too much, and always with vegetable fiber, fats and protein.

My first personal experience with results is a funny story. As an author, my vision is of great importance (as for everyone). I got new prescription glasses in June, but my vision seemed to get worse and worse, on and off, quickly. One evening I picked up my Schwartzbein book and could barely read it. I thought I must be going blind. I knew, though, on the Schwartzbein diet, that it was time for me to eat. I ate my small balanced meal and sat back down to read- lo and behold, my vision was clear. Since then, I have kept my vision pretty clear by eating on time.

I'm sure the Desert Island will be filled with nutritious fruits and then there will always be fish! 
Here is Debra's  Victorian novel, The Companion of Lady Holmeshire which I hope makes her a nice companion during her stay.
Thanks for looking after my Island for the day, Debra. 
Debra's blog is at www.authordebrabrown.blogspot.com
 

Woman Friday, Desert Island Castaway - Anita Seymour

Today I'm at Peeking Between the Pages Blog where Darlene is reviewing The Gilded Lily.
Whilst I am off on my blog tour my Desert Island Guest for today is Anita Seymour, historical novelist and another fan of the 17th century.


Anita says on her website:
"The realities of everyday habits shape the actions of my characters, but although restricting, these are the details I find fascinating – for instance how long it took to travel between London and Exeter in a box coach without suspension, and where accidents were frequent on ill-made up roads that in parts became knee deep in mud during winter rain. In fact I find the research is the most exciting part and less arduous than actually writing the story. If I cannot obtain a definitive answer from more than one source, I leave it out. This can sometimes constrain my plot choices, but it’s all part of the challenge of writing a credible as well as an exciting story.

Getting inside my character’s heads is also vital. In the 17th Century, attitudes were very different to today. Education was not available to everyone, and we now disapprove of prejudice, chauvinism and religious fanaticism, but in the 1640’s, views were very different. My characters have to be true to their own time, I have to allow them to hold views we would dismiss now. Maybe they are bigoted, politically backwards and administer whippings to their misbehaving children – even their wife! I cannot pass judgment on them, or apologize for their beliefs. Not everyone was a free thinker ahead of their time.

Writing historical fiction is complicated and challenging, but my spirit lives in the past and I cannot imagine myself writing anything else."

Here are Anita's choices: 
"The Classic has got to be Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice - it's the best romantic love story ever written and can stand being read repeatedly with no loss of interest.

The Contemporary: The Distant Hours by Kate Morton - her narrative is so detailed, I enjoyed it the first time, but also sure I will find more in it on a second, third and fourth reading

The Non-Fiction: Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court by Lucy Worsley - so by the time I am rescued I will be an expert on the early Georgian court and thus writing my next biographic novel will be easy. 

Royalist Rebel looks wonderful and is coming soon from Pen and Sword. For details of her other books, check out Anita's Blog: http://thedisorganisedauthor.blogspot.com

Anita also writes as Anita Davison, Trencarrow Secret and her other books can be found here