A big thank you to the lovely Sally Cronin for taking the time to read and review my latest poetry collection Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity. It means so much and I can’t thank her enough. Do pop over to her blog to read the review.
Everyone has one summer they will never forget. Lou Carling is 16 and obsessed with getting thinner. Joe is her best friend, and last night they found something they shouldn’t have in Joe’s older brothers wardrobe. Travis and Leon are shady figures, leading shadier lives, and during one summer Lou and Joe find themselves pulled into the drama, the confusion and the violence. Will Joe go to any lengths to impress his older brothers? Will Lou’s obsession with losing weight spiral out of control? Is Marianne, her self-harming friend, really her friend, or an enemy in disguise? And will Lou and Joe ever be more than just best friends?
My review
This is the first book I’ve read from Chantelle Atkins and I loved it. I’m amazed that this is her debut novel, it was that good.
It is an emotional, character driven tale about a sixteen-year-old girl coping with the difficulties of being a teenager and living within a broken family (her mother is separated from Lou’s father and is in a new relationship.)
Lou doesn’t want to be that overlooked, overweight girl anymore. The passages about her not wanting to eat are powerful and frightening to read.
The Mess of Me is also a tale of friendship, of love, mothers, daughters, parents and sons. There are many hard hitting topics throughout including escalating family violence, alcohol and drug use, drug trafficking, self harm, and cries for help but these subjects are handled with great sensitivity. The dialogues are sprinkled with wonderful teenage banter to add touches of humour to lighten the narrative.
Brilliantly done.
My two favourite characters were Lou and her best friend Joe who she’s known forever… since she was a baby! Marianne, and Joe’s older brothers Travis and Leon were also well written as were all the adults in the book. Perhaps the only character I felt less connection to was Sara, Lou’s older sister.
Life can be confusing and awkward for teenagers but this also applies to adults too! I loved how The Mess of Me conveyed our vulnerability, our frailness, how making mistakes and bad choices can have a huge impact on our lives and the lives of those we love. Sometimes parents get it spectacularly wrong and The Mess of Me does a fantastic job of portraying that flip side too.
There are many wonderful scenes with Lou and her mum chatting, drawing closer together, beginning to understand each other. I was so touched by these, having two daughters myself, remembering those teenage angst flare ups made me cry. As a parent all you want is for your children to be happy, safe and well and when that is threatened the fear and helplessness is immense. I don’t want to go in too much detail for fear of spoiling the book for you but The Mess of Me portrayed that fear and hopelessness so well.
After finishing The Mess of Me I was left with a sense of hope rising up from this dark tale. I enjoyed it on so many levels.
I will definitely read more from this author. One of my favourite books of 2021.
Highly recommended – 5 stars.
I will be interviewing Chantelle about Chasing Driftwood – her creative writing group soon.
Today, I arrived at the supermarket at 9am forgetting that it doesn’t open until 10am on a Sunday. I decided to go for a walk in our local country park. After a short walk, I sat down and started writing down the idea for this flash fiction piece. Whilst there, I was intrigued to see two old gents chatting in the park bench just a short distance away from me. I couldn’t resist doing a bit of writer eavesdropping. They were so lovely – one was my dad’s age – and he mentioned it’s his birthday next Saturday! They were talking about the passing of time, their youth, and the like. I enjoyed their company so much, lol, Little did they know!!! I hope I see them again! Anyway, I digress. Perhaps, they will feature in a future flash fiction piece that I will write.
For now, this is the flash I came up with:
March 18, 2021, prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less), write a story that takes place a year later. It can be any year. Explore the past year or another significant passing of time to a character. Go where the prompt leads!
The sun shone, bathing my face with a pink glow as I sat in the garden of our new villa.
Portugal. I’ve always loved this beautiful country. Now we’re here for keeps.
My husband played a cheery tune on his guitar. The stress of COVID diminished with each strum and every note. Tears streamed from his eyes. Tears streamed from my eyes. I reached out and touched his hand. No one else could make this happen. No one would brave enough to take such a chance during a pandemic. Only him.
Vax’n 8, a group of seven doctors from Vacaville CA, performed a rendition of “My Shot” from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton” in footage posted to YouTube on March 10, with the aim of encouraging people to get the coronavirus vaccine. BY VAX IN 8 DOCS VIA STORYFUL.
Have you had your shot? Hubby and I had ours a week ago now. We had the Astra Zenica Oxford Vaccine. Do feel free to share your vaccine stories in the comments.
It explains why elderly people (in general,) seem to have less reaction to the vaccine. That explains why my 92 year old dad didn’t have any reaction at all. I was beginning to think he has superpowers! I had a bit of a sore head, sore swollen arm and aches and a weird back pain. Anyone had that? Hubby had it worse… man flu… but to be fair he might have had covid before, so that might explain his more full on reaction.
Either way, get your vaccine folks. It’s better to get flu like symptoms for a day or two than to get COVID. Protect yourself and your friends, colleagues and family. Let’s all do what we can to get rid of COVID.
In the meantime, here are some of my latest books/anthologies about the pandemic. which are garnering excellent reviews. Hint, Hint wouldn’t mind some more reviews…
Take a gander here:
BLURB
Lockdown Innit is a poetry collection of eighteen poems about life’s absurdities and frustrations during lockdown. Wherever you live in this world, this is for you. Expect humour, a dollop of banter and ridiculous rants here and there. Amongst other delights, witness the strange antics of a swan posing by a bin and two statuesque horses appearing like arc deco pieces in a field. Check out the violin player on a tightrope, or the cheeky unmentionables wafting in the lockdown breeze!
Bestselling author Lizzie Chantree’s thoughts: ‘An intricate mix of observations from the author about how the pandemic has brought change. Some welcome, some not so much. A thought provoking read.’
Author and Poet Sarah Northwood: ‘Lockdown innit is a wonderful collection of predominantly free verse poetry on all kinds of themes experienced during the author’s third lockdown. I am sure many of the pieces will resonate with readers who have also experienced humanities frustrating behaviours during this pandemic.
The discarded masks rolling down the roads and the impact of this on wildlife in the future when landfills are filled, and oceans invariably get full of them is certainly something that has crossed my mind. (Simply cutting off the side strings from the masks before throwing disposable ones away could make a big difference so they don’t get tangled on wildlife!) I’ve also had my fair share of dealing with drivers filled with road rage, presumably from the stress!
The varied mood and tone of the pieces is equally matched with the lovely presentation and wonderful splashes of humour. Emotive and descriptive language is employed to engage our senses and of course my favourite piece is probably ‘This Face.’ Making this a highly enjoyable collection and one I have no doubt in recommending!’
Lockdown Innit is the second book that I have released during this time period
The first, This Is Lockdown released in kindle in July 2020. This Is Lockdown is a compilation and anthology of my diaries, poetry, flash fiction and 28 wonderful contributions from international authors, bloggers and creatives sharing their thoughts, poetry, and flash fiction during covid19. Many old friends contributed to the anthology and I discovered many new authors, and creatives via compiling this anthology.
This Is Lockdown is available in a shorter paperback version with poetry, flash fiction and contributions (the diaries are only in the kindle version.)
For Hope I chose wish, and eager I decided upon aim. I thought I’d try a new form the Diatelle…
“The Diatelle is a fun, syllable counting form like the etheree with a twist. The syllable structure of the diatelle is as follows: 1/2/3/4/6/8/10/12/10/8/6/4/3/2/1, but unlike an etheree, has a set rhyme pattern of abbcbccaccbcbba. This poetry form may be written on any subject matter and looks best center aligned in a diamond shape.”https://merrildsmith.wordpress.com/2020/07/10/flickering/
I decided just to have fun with this!
The poem is inspired by a sculpture of a deer I saw in Cambridge Botanical Gardens. Sometimes you spot a deer in the gardens but they disappear before you can study them for any time. This fellow is a little different! He’s there for keeps and I wondered if he missed the opportunity to roam! So, the poem below involves a chat between the deer and the sun!
Wish
To leave
On this eve
The air whispers
Not you, deer willow weave.
Hey, Sun! Quit gawping, swell sister
Bright yellow hot botanical drifter
Come over, plant your beams’s rays, aim your balmy kiss
Before I’m felled by the next twister
Cause me harm and makes me blister
Ain’t you so keen to please!
You up-lifter
I believe
You tease
Pish!
Do pop over to Colleen’s blog to see the challenge post and join in!
Once she lived a normal life, a good, boring life, but a safe one…
Abandoned as a baby on the steps of Wolfe Manor, Fianna was raised with love, secure inside its walls. Now her bubble of safety is about to burst. Can she save the home and school which once cocooned her when old fears overwhelm? Facing students at the start of a new term is frightening enough without nightmares resurfacing which terrify Fianna.
She may have a degree in teaching but will this skill help her? The return of old friends sends Fianna spiraling down the rabbit hole of her past. Wolfe Manor may call her to be what she was born to be, but can she find out in time to save it from an evil only she can defeat? Or if she fails and Wolfe Manor falls, what happens when the evil faces humanity unchallenged?
My review
An atmospheric story demonstrating the writing talent of Adele Marie Park. If you enjoy supernatural coming of age stories with elemental magic, witches, family secrets, gateways, portals between worlds, nightmares and dark demons this is for you.
It is an intricate read with a fair few characters and quite a complicated back story, so be prepared to invest time and attention to the narrative. There are some wonderful passages to enthrall you. I particularly loved the sections with the animals: the wolf, mouse, stag, owl, and badger. I’m a sucker for animals in books!
The authors words really shine in this latest book. I particularly enjoyed the passages devoted to art. I believe the author also paints and this is evident in how detailed and real these are.
I particularly enjoyed the humour and flurries of brilliance in this novel, as you can see in these quotes:
“Hey. Demon,” he shouted, and the chaos stopped for a second. “Yes. You know me. I remember and so do you. Leave or I’ll do what I did years ago.”
As memory infiltrated the adult personae her emotional shield dropped. It was as it had been when she was a child and Miss Appleton chased away the darkness.
Fantasy and horror writer, Adele Marie Park originally hails from the Orkney islands. Rousay is a small, but archaeological important island, dubbed “The Egypt of The North.” The oral tradition of passing down stories fired the young Adele’s imagination with tales of trolls, faeries, sea monsters, witches, ghosts, and seals who could change into humans. The landscape of the island fascinated her as moorland hills swept down through green fields to the shores of secluded beaches, where black volcanic rocks might be a troll or a sleeping giant.
Reading the Hobbit at an early age inspired her and in her teens she turned to Stephen King, James Herbert, Anne Rice and Storm Constantine to appease a mind hungry to delve into the paranormal. Throughout her life she never gave up writing but it was an ongoing medical condition which forced her to give up work that began her passion to publish her writing for others to read.
Genres may come and go, but Adele’s writing encompasses a solidity which does not change; the overcoming of obstacles in one’s life, love, death, grief and pain all infused with those supernatural elements that one sees out the corner of the eye or feels when one is alone in the house at night and a floorboard creaks.
Amazon link:
To connect with Adele, and learn more about her work visit this sites:
Poetry, Cornavirus, Lockdown, New Release, Lockdown Innit, MJ Mallon
Thank you so, so much to Debby Gies, (D G Kaye,) a very special lady, and fellow Fey sister for this wonderful Q and A about my latest release Lockdown Innit.
More about Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity at source…
It’s the start of another week. It’s Monday! What are you Reading is hosted by Kathryn from Book Date, this is a weekly event to share what we’ve read in the past week and what we hope to read, plus whatever else comes to mind. I have several books on the go, and some others I hope to get to, so here goes.
To read more… What Are you Reading… click on the It’s Monday source link above.
Many thanks to Carla for including This Is Lockdown amongst this great celebration of reading!
Thank you so much to Christy Birmingham for this wonderful interview at When Women Inspire. Means the world to me. Christy and I chat about my latest release – Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity, I share a 5 star review from author Richard Dee and an excerpt of one of the poems – Bucket List. Pop over to Christy’s blog to read the post and see the previous blogs I’ve written for When Women Inspire:
Thank you so, so much to Debby for taking the time to read and review Lockdown Innit Poems About Absurdity. It means so much, especially as I know she is having such a tough time at the moment. She is a very special lady, and I appreciate her so much. xxx
Check out her review….
My 5 Star Review:
This is Mallon’s second book where she shares her views, observations and incidents she’s endured dealing with the Covid lockdown. Mallon shares her thoughts and worries and experiences through poetic prose, and free verse writing in this book, documenting a range of emotions from fear to humor.
M J Mallon YA Author and Poet 