Friday 16 November 2018

The Death of Mrs Westaway

The Death of Mrs. WestawayThe Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A highly principled young woman in her late teens is left alone in the world when her mother is killed in a hit-and-run. Having been left destitute, she drops out of school and takes over her mother’s fortune-telling booth on a Brighton pier to make ends meet. Even so, she falls prey to a loan shark, who is now demanding repayment. And that’s where this book starts, with a letter from a solicitor informing her that her grandmother has died leaving a substantial estate. The trouble is, even though it’s addressed to her, they’ve clearly mistaken her for somebody else.

I took to this almost immediately. Ruth Ware’s prose is easy on the eye, and the book is very different from what I usually read, so it acted as a great palate cleanser. This is no cozy mystery; it’s a thriller—though truth be told it’s really a Gothic. With the ancient, rundown house set in some desolate part of Cornwall, the sprawling grounds infested with magpies, and the unwelcoming, equally-as-ancient housekeeper, it certainly has all the trappings.

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Thursday 1 November 2018

Monthly Post: November 2018
Top tips for writers - but will they actually improve your writing?

The Scarab Heart (The Involuntary Medium, #2)The Scarab Heart (The Involuntary Medium, #2) by Michael Gallagher
Current average rating: 4.39 of 5 stars

We’ve all seen them, haven’t we? “Ten Top Tips to Improve Your Writing”. While I’m not about to make a list of my own, I will happily distil for you what these generally include:

1. Write in the active voice and avoid the passive.
2. Use fewer adjectives.
3. Avoid adverbs; choose verbs instead that describe the action.
4. Vary the lengths of your sentences.
5. Vary your sentence constructions.
6. Show, don’t tell.

If you follow this advice, your writing will almost certainly improve. It will cut out the flab. It may even turn you into the next Stephen King. Why? Read on…

This month’s giveaway is a free download of The Scarab Heart. The Valley of the Kings, 1885. Lizzie Blaylock has sworn not to use her powers, but her powers have other things in mind. Offer ends on November 30th 2018.

“The imagery is fabulous, the characters are likeable, and the story is believably enthralling.”—Nightwing, Goodreads Reviewer (5 stars)

Happy investigating!
Michael

Find me on my website Michael Gallagher Writes, on Facebook, and follow me on Twitter @seventh7rainbow