Sunday, January 23, 2022

All Your Twisted Secrets by Diana Urba



Audience
Teenagers


Genre
Mystery, Thriller, Whodunnit


Pages
400



Recommended For and Similar Reads
Tired of reading mysteries and figuring out the puzzle halfway through the book like the rest of us? Finally, a novel that has a shocking ending no matter how hard you try to figure it out! All Your Twisted Secrets is a thrilling masterpiece for mature teenagers looking for realistic and complex whodunnit mysteries. If you have watched and loved "Clue" and "Game Night" or read and enjoyed One of Us is Lying and Murder On the Orient Express, you should read All Your Twisted Secrets!




Summary by Diana Urban

“Welcome to dinner, and again, congratulations on being selected. Now you must do the selecting.”

What do the queen bee, star athlete, valedictorian, stoner, loner, and music geek all have in common? They were all invited to a scholarship dinner, only to discover it’s a trap. Someone has locked them into a room with a bomb, a syringe filled with poison, and a note saying they have an hour to pick someone to kill...or else everyone dies.

Amber Prescott is determined to get her classmates and herself out of the room alive, but that might be easier said than done. No one knows how they’re all connected or who would want them dead.

As they retrace the events over the past year that might have triggered their captor’s ultimatum, it becomes clear that everyone is hiding something.

And with the clock ticking down, confusion turns into fear, and fear morphs into panic as they race to answer the biggest question: Who will they choose to die?




Quick Statements
All Your Twisted Secrets is easily 2020's most anticipated YA novel! With the plot turning every which way, the characters' emotions boiling to the rim, and time ticking down, readers are in for a big treat. All Your Twisted Secrets raises the bar of expectations for all other YA mysteries and thrillers! If you're exhausted of cookie-cutter, easily solvable, and apathetic monologues, you must read All Your Twisted Secrets to “cleanse your palate” and reintroduce you to the big-leagues!






Selling Points

All Your Twisted Secrets has everything...⠀
🚪 A locked room⠀
⏰ A ticking time bomb⠀
💉 Poison⠀
🎼 A protagonist obsessed with movie scores⠀
👯‍♀️ Female friendship⠀
😡 Bullying⠀
👩‍❤️‍💋‍👨 Kissing⠀
🎮 Fortnite ⠀
🔗 Twisted secrets⠀
♟ An impossible choice⠀




Review: 5/5

Initial Impressions: From the moment I read the summary, I knew I had to get my hands on this book! I am the biggest "Clue" and Murder On the Orient Express fan, so I knew I'd be reading All Your Twisted Secrets whether it was an ARC or a book I'd buy in 2020. I can't wait to begin reading; the One of Us is Lying vibes are strong!

Halfway-Through Notes: I try not to fangirl about books in my reviews, but Oh. My. Goodness! Diana Urban has created a masterpiece of mystery, emotion, and fear. I'm debating whether I should stop and take notes or just keep reading because I am so engaged!

Opinions: Apologies for the short Initial Impressions and Halfway-Through Notes, but I haven't read a book this rich in a very long time. It is easily 2019's best read! I am all-around impressed with Urban's All Your Twisted Secrets; the characters, the conflict, and the ending. The ending, for the first time in a long time, is not something you see coming. It was a complete shock when I arrived at the conclusion! A full star was given towards the final five chapters. The characters were also astounding. For once (that seems to be a common phrase), they acted like normal teenagers. Peer-pressure, playing Fortnite, quoting Talladega Nights, being lazy, actually having intelligence, and how they react to a bomb threat; it was all very believable and made the read more satisfying. The conflict and plot was also well-planned and written. I have read and watched many whodunnit mysteries that have failed to meet the mark, but All Your Twisted Secrets was thrilling, high-intensity, and heartbreaking. A full 5/5 rating!


My Favourite Thing: There are too many things for me to choose my favourite element from All Your Twisted Secrets, but if I must, I'd say I appreciated Diana Urban's writing style. It was strangely comforting and yet completely unfamiliar, as if the characters were just out of your reach. I had a strong understanding of what was going on, but as Urban slowly released more and more information, I began questioning everything I'd been told. Urban wrote the chapters in alternating timelines, meaning Chapter A is current time and Chapter B is ten years ago and back and forth. This gave the impression of time running out, a big motif when discussing the themes. Diana Urban did not just tell an interesting story, she crafted a marvelous novel.

My Least Favourite Thing: Unfortunately, My Least Favourite Thing contains a big spoiler. If you would honestly like to know because you have already read the book, please feel free to contact me. Otherwise, continue reading this spoiler-free review and enjoy!


Per FTC regulations, please know that I received this title for free for review from the original author. I'm honest in reviews, meaning the fact I received the book for free does not alter the rating I gives it.





Author Information

Diana Urban is an author of dark, twisty thrillers. When she’s not torturing fictional characters, she works in digital marketing for startups! She lives with her husband and cat in Boston and enjoys reading, video games, fawning over cute animals, and looking at the beach from a safe distance. Visit her online at dianaurban.com and enjoy!



Interview with Diana Urban

What is your favourite part of the writing process?
Revising is my favorite part; it’s where the magic happens. Early developmental edits — making huge structural changes, adding or removing characters, or creating red herrings — are like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle, and I love jigsaw puzzles. I love seeing how pieces of the story fit together in ways I never would have initially imagined. Later rounds of edits — strengthening the character arcs, improving the dialogue, finessing sentences — feels like molding a lump of clay into something beautiful. And seeing the story take its final shape is incredibly gratifying.


When did you realise you wanted to be an author?
The craft of writing always fascinated me, but if I told you I always wanted to be an author, I’d be lying. While growing up, I didn’t think I was remotely capable of writing a novel! World building, red herrings, character development, tension, pacing… it all seemed like rocket science to me. The problem was, I envisioned authors plopping down at their desks and writing a finished book in one go. I didn’t realize all the steps that come in between.

Since it seemed so impossible, I didn’t even bother to try. Instead I let my story ideas swirl around my brain without release. I was too afraid to fail.

Then one day in my mid-twenties while on a business trip in Paris, I saw something terrifying happen right in front of me on the metro, and it inspired me to write my first novel. The desire to tell that story overpowered my fear of failure. I wrote that book and completed two revisions in just three months. It wasn’t impossible after all! That novel hasn’t been published yet (hopefully someday!), but once I started writing, I couldn’t stop. I think about that moment a lot—if I hadn’t been on that exact train car at that exact time, would I have started writing? Part of me likes to think so. Another part of me likes to believe in those singular moments that tear your reality in half and set them on alternate paths, a la Sliding Doors.

(And telling you what happened on that metro car would be a spoiler, sorry!)


Do you write for yourself or for your readers?
Both! I always want to write something I enjoy myself, otherwise my lack of enthusiasm would come across in the writing. But my main mission is to entertain readers — to let them escape reality for a few hours and have fun. And I secretly want to keep them up until 3am. No, seriously, that’s my goal. I end each chapter on a cliffhanger because I don’t want readers to be able to put down my book.


If you could ask a famous author three questions about their books/inspiration/etc, who would it be and what are the questions?
Hands down it would be J.K. Rowling.

1. Can I see the outlines/spreadsheets you created before drafting book one? (She once released the spreadsheet she created before writing book five, but I’m so curious what she’d planned before drafting the very first book!)


2. What is your revision process like? How much changes between your first and final draft of each book? (Her world building is incredible, and I’m curious how much simply popped out of her brain as she drafted vs. how much of it was gradual throughout her revising process.)


3. What happened to all of Harry’s grandparents? (And I have tons of other questions like this. I, however, really didn’t need to know the history of wizards’ bathroom habits.)


Is there a story you’ve always wanted to write but never have?
Of course. Stay tuned.


What was your favourite book when you were a kid?
I’m getting repetitive with Harry Potter, but it’s true — reading and re-reading those books got me through some dark times while I was growing up; 9/11, bullying at school, and all the other stress I was under at the time. I also absolutely loved all of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books, many of which I also re-read numerous times. I enjoyed getting scared, and lived for his twist endings. I also admired how each chapter ended on a cliffhanger, so you couldn’t stop reading. I learned from the best!


Wow, that makes it even more amazing that he read and reviewed All Your Twisted Secrets! What advice would you give to a writer that’s just starting out?
Craft advice: Throw away the notion of writing a perfect first draft. Again, revisions are where the real magic happens. Just like you wouldn’t solve a jigsaw puzzle by pulling pieces out of the box and setting them down in order, from left to right, one at a time—you don’t write a book that way, either. Instead you scatter all the pieces on the table and start working on the edges of the puzzle (the outline, or the framework of the novel) and then you tackle one section at a time (one plot thread, or one character arc, or one red herring), building and building until it all finally fits together. It can be overwhelming to conceptualize a book all at once, but when you break it down and take one element at a time, it’s easier to manage in your brain. At least, that’s how it works for me!

Publishing advice: Get ready to be in this for the long haul. It’s easy to find success stories because you’ll first look up the publishing history of authors you know, who obviously have reached some level of success. So it’s easy to set your expectations sky high. And when reality doesn’t meet your expectations… that’s when your heart gets crushed to bits. So be aware that most of us aren’t overnight successes. Most of us take years to get published. Even after that, most authors take several books to “break out,” if they ever do (some authors earn steady income across a dozen or more books without a breakout hit). You need to have determination and perseverance in this field. Also, make friends with other writers; join writing groups, swap stories, exchange notes, encourage each other, vent together… be there for each other.


Describe your typical writing day.
It took me years to figure out my ideal writing routine, but it’s this: I wake up at 5:30am, brush my teeth, make a cup of coffee, and immediately get to work, writing or revising until around 7:30am when I have to get ready for my day job. On weekends, if I’m on a roll, I might keep going for a bit longer. That’s it! I work full-time as a marketing manager at a startup, and by the time I get home at night, I’m usually too pooped to get into a creative mindset enough to write.

Promotion is also a big part of my writing life though, especially as the All Your Twisted Secrets launch date approaches. So many of my writing mornings lately have been replaced with promotional activities, like answering interviews (like this one!), or taking photos for Instagram and writing out the captions, or planning email marketing campaigns. Sometimes I’ll do those things at night since it doesn’t take as much brain power for me as drafting or revising does.


Without spoiling anything, was the climax of All Your Twisted Secrets planned from the beginning or did you come up with it while writing?
While writing the first draft, I had a vague sense of the ending — something completely different than what it is now. But as I reached the second-to-last chapter, the true ending hit me like a ton of bricks. I will never forget writing the first line of that chapter. That line hasn’t changed since the first time I wrote it. I knew what I had to do. I knew it would make for the most delicious twist. But then I had to go back and rewrite the whole darn thing.



Do you have questions for Diana Urban? Ask her here!



Other Works by Diana Urban


Diana Urban has also written a short story called "Off the Trail" which you can read for FREE by signing up for her newsletter hereMake sure to visit Urban's blog and sign up for her newsletter to hear all of the exciting news leading up to the release!






Links
Twitter: @dianaurban
Instagram: @dianaurban

Saturday, November 20, 2021

Stuck 1966: No Time to Groove




Audience
8 - 18 year olds



Genre
Mystery, adventure, science-fiction


Pages
123


Recommended For and Similar Reads
Stuck (in Time) is an atmospheric and energetic read perfect for children and teenagers alike! On top of entertaining, this book can and will inspire a love of history in young adults! If you have read and loved Power and Fury by James Erith, Super Doll by Erin Schulz, Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Matilda by Roald Dahl, “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, or seen “Back to the Future” you are bound to love Stuck (in Time)!



Blurb
This standalone novella begins with the Baxter children attending a concert by the most famous pop group of all time; The Beatles. England in the 1960s is a world more familiar to the children than other eras they have visited. However, not everything goes to plan and Robert, James and Lucy discover that Uncle Archie can't help them. Not only that - this time, it's not just their own well being that is at risk!


Review: 4/5
This novella is a hard one to judge! The magic of Dave Johnson's Stuck books originate from time periods which the Baxters travel to - places and times we as readers could never imagine ourselves a part of because they were so long ago! Stuck 1966: No Time to Groove takes us back in time like all the Stuck books, but not so far back that the culture of the decade is unmemorable. Although some readers may adore the modern take on time travel and the ability to relate with the Baxters' connection to heroes and musicians they wish they had the opportunity to meet; other readers, including myself, might discover that the tale expressed in this novella is too similar to the stories told by our grandparents. Not that my grandparents had any tales of time travelling to share per se, but that is why Stuck 1966 still deserves four stars! In all respects, this novella is a fantastic and stimulating addition to the series and whether you've read every other Stuck instalment or not, I recommend you give this one a try - I must simply say it wasn't my favourite of the saga!



Total Rating: G Language: G
Adult Content: G
Violence: PG



Per FTC regulations, please know that I received this title for free for review from the original author, the publisher, publicist, or a third party. I am honest in my reviews, meaning the fact I received the book for free does not alter the rating I give it. 



Author Information

My first love was art, and at the age of 19 I found myself studying Printed Textiles at Liverpool School of Art, excited to be in the same building than John Lennon once went to, and next door to the school that Paul McCartney & George Harrison went to. I loved Liverpool, and still do, I love the city, the people and the football team! I met my wife at the college, and afterwards we both worked together as freelance textile designers, producing designs mostly for the USA market, using agents based in New York. I combined this with teaching at several colleges and universities, and after moving first to the North East, we settled in the tiny East Midlands county of Rutland.

So, working as a lecturer at Loughborough School of Art & Design (later Loughborough University) for over 20 years, and feeling proud to help so many talented students, I felt it was time for a change and I left.

If I look back to my school years, at RAF Changi Grammar School, (Singapore) the two other subjects I really liked were History and English. If I look at my life, past and present, one thing I have always enjoyed is reading stories to our three children, and now to our grandchildren. So that has pointed the way to my future.

I decided to create adventure stories, the kind of stories that I would have enjoyed as a child. Stories that adults would enjoy too, whether reading it to a child, or listening as an audio book, and the first of these my first novel, Stuck (in time). There are more in the series to come. I hope you enjoy it!










Interview with Author
If you could ask a famous author three questions about their books/inspiration/etc, who would it be and what are the questions?
If Roald Dahl were still alive I would ask him:
1. Who were the people that inspired The Twits - I would love to see a photo of them with their horrible hair with things living in it. Did you know couples like that who were always playing nasty tricks on each other?
2. I read recently that you have 8 rules for writing a book:

Just add chocolate
Adults can be scary
Bad things happen
Revenge is sweet
Keep a wicked sense of humour
Pick perfect pictures
Films are fun...but books are better!
Food is fun! Are these arranged in order of importance? I wish I had read these rules before I wrote Stuck (in Time) because I should have included chocolate - it was in short supply in WWII in the UK. I mentioned bananas in the book, also in short supply, but I forgot about chocolate! 3. Please can you ask Willy Wonka to invent a chocolate that is good for you? I’ve eaten too much recently!



What was your favourite book when you were a kid?
When I was a kid there were nowhere near the range of exciting, colourful and socially relevant books that are around today. If I think back to when I was around 9 or 10 it would be one of the “Adventure” series by Enid Blyton. Perhaps “The Island of Adventure”. Here’s an interesting thing, Wikipedia states in a section about changes made by publishers, “The once handyman turned villain, Joe, was a black man named Jo-Jo in the original novel. His skin color is mentioned over 30 times. References to his ethnicity have been removed from some newer editions” I don’t remember the story any more, I would have read one of the earlier editions, but I would love to be able to go back and ask my 9-year-old self what I thought about Enid Blyton’s portrayal of a black man! Why can’t I remember the book now? Well, when I moved up to secondary school, at the age of 11, the very first English lesson was such a critical analysis on Enid Blyton’s books, that I never read another from that day.



Do you write for yourself or for your readers?
I haven’t always been a writer, but I’m still the same person. Previously I was a textile designer and the issues are the same. I would produce the kind of designs that I wanted to design, using images and colours that I liked, but at the same time I was aware there was a market, that the designs were intended to be printed onto fabric, made into clothes, and worn by people. So there would be no point designing men’s shirts in pastel pink decorated with rabbits just because I wanted to! In the same way I want to write stories because I find them exciting, but also, I am aware of the audience. So, it’s for both myself and the readers.



Is there a story you’ve always wanted to write but never have?
The next story in the series is almost ready to publish and is set in the Elizabethan era, but swirling around in my head are ideas for the book after that. I want to set it in 1833, the year in the UK when laws were introduced to ban child labour, and to abolish slavery. So, I would like my characters to leave Britain and travel to Jamaica where I know my ancestors were slaves. There’s quite a bit of research to do before I embark on it, but it could be a positive contribution to Black Lives Matter.



What is your favourite part of the writing process?
I could say, “Everything except checking the punctuation!” Actually, my favourite part is when I have a scene in my head, almost like a movie playing, and I sit down and type as fast as I can so I don’t forget it. At that stage I have a very rough outline of where I want the plot to go, but I am continually surprised by that journey. Not just surprised, but excited by what is happening on the page. Before, there was nothing, then suddenly we are off on an adventure!



When does a “writer” become an “author”?
Now here’s a question I’ve never thought about before. I spent time writing my book, so at that point technically I was a writer. Then when it was published I became an author. However, I can’t help thinking there is more to it than that! Firstly, a trait of the British, is that they are naturally quite self effacing, it’s considered not good manners to ‘big yourself up’! So, if I had to declare what I did, I would feel much more comfortable describing myself as a writer, than an author. Anyway, we are dealing with labels here, and I am concerned that it might be considered by some that an “author” would have more status than a “writer”. I’m not seeking status so I don’t need to be called an author, even though I am! And if that’s not daft, I don’t know what is!



Did you study all of the time periods in the “Stuck” series at the RAF Changi Grammar School or did you conduct new research for the stories?
I am going to tackle this question backwards. The third book in the series is to be set in 1833. I know this, even though I haven’t written one single word. It’s not a period I studied at school at all, I’ve chosen it because I know that laws were passed in the UK restricting child labour, and also abolishing slavery. So hopefully my characters will end up in Jamaica where my great great grandfather was a slave, (there may be another “great” thrown in there - I’ll have to check the family tree). So, I have a lot of research to do - I’ve started by reading Charles Dickens books. He was alive at the time and therefore my characters have to meet him! 

The book that is written already, (hopefully we will be starting the audio recording of it soon), is set in Elizabethan times and that was a period I did study at school. My teacher was Tom Hollomby and we are still in contact after all these years, it was a period I very much enjoyed. In fact, I remember more learning about Henry VIII. Everything changed with Henry - if he hadn’t been so paranoid about producing a son, he wouldn’t have had to break away from the catholic church, (so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn). Anne was Elizabeth’s mother - he had her executed, married Jane Seymour and eventually had a son, and later three more wives. Ironically, the son died young, and Elizabeth proved to be the long reigning Queen during England’s “Golden Years” Beats “The Game of Thrones”!

Finally, much of Stuck (in Time) is set in 1940. WWII wasn’t a period I remember studying either. However, for me growing up in the 1960s it was much more ingrained in our everyday lives. There were always films about the war on the TV. My father, a Jamaican came over to England during the war and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He remained in the RAF until he retired. So, we lived on RAF bases, I remember the bomb shelters there. Usually there was a “retired” fighter plane at the gates to the camp. My mother was in the land army - they were volunteers who worked on farms in WWII (two land army girls feature in the book). Compared to looking at 1833 for the next book, creating Stuck (in Time) was more a case of writing about what I already knew.



What was the most shocking thing you learned while writing Stuck (in Time)?
I vaguely knew about Internment Camps by the time I started writing the book. I certainly didn’t know about them when I was a boy. We were brought up to believe that we were “the good guys”, and whilst there wasn’t the brutality seen in the German and Japanese WWII concentration camps, there must have been a lot of psychological suffering for people forced to live in camps, and work on the land, just because they were descended from German and Italian people. The same happened for Japanese Americans in the USA. Stuck (in Time) doesn’t dwell on the plight of people in the camps, but they do feature. There’s a book there too - what’s it like to be locked up, when some people think you are the enemy, and others know you are not? When you may have been an educated professional, but now you have to dig up potatoes! It wasn’t like the camps for migrants, say crossing the English Channel in tiny boats, or crossing the border from Mexico, or arriving in a boat on the Australian coast from Vietnam. These were people already living and working in England, who, when war broke out, were rounded up just because they happened to have the wrong parentage.








Other Books by Author





Links
Dave Johnson’s Website: https://www.stuckdave.co.uk/
Elizabeth Newsham’s Website: http://elizabethnewsham.com/
Publication Date: November 8, 2021

Stuck 1855: Lucy Travels East by Dave Johnson


 Audience 8 - 18 year olds



Genre
Mystery, adventure, science-fiction


Pages
97


Recommended For and Similar Reads
Stuck (in Time) and the subsequent series are atmospheric and energetic reads perfect for children and teenagers alike! On top of entertaining, this novella in particular can and will inspire a love of history in young adults. If you have read and loved Power and Fury by James Erith, Super Doll by Erin Schulz, Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, Matilda by Roald Dahl, “A Sound of Thunder” by Ray Bradbury, or seen “Back to the Future” you are bound to love Stuck 1855: Lucy Travels East!





Blurb
Lucy Baxter is at the forefront in this standalone novella. She imagines she is simply going to take up the position of a companion to a young Victorian girl in genteel London but very quickly, events move out of her control, and she finds herself on a journey that she could not have imagined. Separated from her brothers, she is forced to make decisions based only on her own moral code and hope they will lead her to safety and success.


Review: 5/5!
Like each and every Stuck instalment, this novella was jaw-droppingly splendid! Every single element was captivating, unexpected, and invigorating, but there is one thing that sets this one apart from the others: Stuck 1855: Lucy Travels East dives straight from a trio of problem-solvers into a one-woman show. Our favourite heroine of children's sci-fi earns the title of protagonist and travels across the map with only the passion and devotion to her family keeping her going - if anybody needs proof that Lucy is a mastermind at improvising situations in the wild just like her brothers, this novella has it! After multiple books of quite similar story arcs, Stuck 1855 was a innovative take on what obstacles the Baxter children can overcome. I am ecstatic to continue with the series after this refresher - it is everything I needed!



Total Rating: G Language: G
Adult Content: G
Violence: G



Per FTC regulations, please know that I received this title for free for review from the original author, the publisher, publicist, or a third party. I am honest in my reviews, meaning the fact I received the book for free does not alter the rating I give it. 



Author Information

My first love was art, and at the age of 19 I found myself studying Printed Textiles at Liverpool School of Art, excited to be in the same building than John Lennon once went to, and next door to the school that Paul McCartney & George Harrison went to. I loved Liverpool, and still do, I love the city, the people and the football team! I met my wife at the college, and afterwards we both worked together as freelance textile designers, producing designs mostly for the USA market, using agents based in New York. I combined this with teaching at several colleges and universities, and after moving first to the North East, we settled in the tiny East Midlands county of Rutland.

So, working as a lecturer at Loughborough School of Art & Design (later Loughborough University) for over 20 years, and feeling proud to help so many talented students, I felt it was time for a change and I left.

If I look back to my school years, at RAF Changi Grammar School, (Singapore) the two other subjects I really liked were History and English. If I look at my life, past and present, one thing I have always enjoyed is reading stories to our three children, and now to our grandchildren. So that has pointed the way to my future.

I decided to create adventure stories, the kind of stories that I would have enjoyed as a child. Stories that adults would enjoy too, whether reading it to a child, or listening as an audio book, and the first of these my first novel, Stuck (in time). There are more in the series to come. I hope you enjoy it!










Interview with Author
If you could ask a famous author three questions about their books/inspiration/etc, who would it be and what are the questions?
If Roald Dahl were still alive I would ask him:
1. Who were the people that inspired The Twits - I would love to see a photo of them with their horrible hair with things living in it. Did you know couples like that who were always playing nasty tricks on each other?
2. I read recently that you have 8 rules for writing a book:

Just add chocolate
Adults can be scary
Bad things happen
Revenge is sweet
Keep a wicked sense of humour
Pick perfect pictures
Films are fun...but books are better!
Food is fun! Are these arranged in order of importance? I wish I had read these rules before I wrote Stuck (in Time) because I should have included chocolate - it was in short supply in WWII in the UK. I mentioned bananas in the book, also in short supply, but I forgot about chocolate! 3. Please can you ask Willy Wonka to invent a chocolate that is good for you? I’ve eaten too much recently!



What was your favourite book when you were a kid?
When I was a kid there were nowhere near the range of exciting, colourful and socially relevant books that are around today. If I think back to when I was around 9 or 10 it would be one of the “Adventure” series by Enid Blyton. Perhaps “The Island of Adventure”. Here’s an interesting thing, Wikipedia states in a section about changes made by publishers, “The once handyman turned villain, Joe, was a black man named Jo-Jo in the original novel. His skin color is mentioned over 30 times. References to his ethnicity have been removed from some newer editions” I don’t remember the story any more, I would have read one of the earlier editions, but I would love to be able to go back and ask my 9-year-old self what I thought about Enid Blyton’s portrayal of a black man! Why can’t I remember the book now? Well, when I moved up to secondary school, at the age of 11, the very first English lesson was such a critical analysis on Enid Blyton’s books, that I never read another from that day.



Do you write for yourself or for your readers?
I haven’t always been a writer, but I’m still the same person. Previously I was a textile designer and the issues are the same. I would produce the kind of designs that I wanted to design, using images and colours that I liked, but at the same time I was aware there was a market, that the designs were intended to be printed onto fabric, made into clothes, and worn by people. So there would be no point designing men’s shirts in pastel pink decorated with rabbits just because I wanted to! In the same way I want to write stories because I find them exciting, but also, I am aware of the audience. So, it’s for both myself and the readers.



Is there a story you’ve always wanted to write but never have?
The next story in the series is almost ready to publish and is set in the Elizabethan era, but swirling around in my head are ideas for the book after that. I want to set it in 1833, the year in the UK when laws were introduced to ban child labour, and to abolish slavery. So, I would like my characters to leave Britain and travel to Jamaica where I know my ancestors were slaves. There’s quite a bit of research to do before I embark on it, but it could be a positive contribution to Black Lives Matter.



What is your favourite part of the writing process?
I could say, “Everything except checking the punctuation!” Actually, my favourite part is when I have a scene in my head, almost like a movie playing, and I sit down and type as fast as I can so I don’t forget it. At that stage I have a very rough outline of where I want the plot to go, but I am continually surprised by that journey. Not just surprised, but excited by what is happening on the page. Before, there was nothing, then suddenly we are off on an adventure!



When does a “writer” become an “author”?
Now here’s a question I’ve never thought about before. I spent time writing my book, so at that point technically I was a writer. Then when it was published I became an author. However, I can’t help thinking there is more to it than that! Firstly, a trait of the British, is that they are naturally quite self effacing, it’s considered not good manners to ‘big yourself up’! So, if I had to declare what I did, I would feel much more comfortable describing myself as a writer, than an author. Anyway, we are dealing with labels here, and I am concerned that it might be considered by some that an “author” would have more status than a “writer”. I’m not seeking status so I don’t need to be called an author, even though I am! And if that’s not daft, I don’t know what is!



Did you study all of the time periods in the “Stuck” series at the RAF Changi Grammar School or did you conduct new research for the stories?
I am going to tackle this question backwards. The third book in the series is to be set in 1833. I know this, even though I haven’t written one single word. It’s not a period I studied at school at all, I’ve chosen it because I know that laws were passed in the UK restricting child labour, and also abolishing slavery. So hopefully my characters will end up in Jamaica where my great great grandfather was a slave, (there may be another “great” thrown in there - I’ll have to check the family tree). So, I have a lot of research to do - I’ve started by reading Charles Dickens books. He was alive at the time and therefore my characters have to meet him! 

The book that is written already, (hopefully we will be starting the audio recording of it soon), is set in Elizabethan times and that was a period I did study at school. My teacher was Tom Hollomby and we are still in contact after all these years, it was a period I very much enjoyed. In fact, I remember more learning about Henry VIII. Everything changed with Henry - if he hadn’t been so paranoid about producing a son, he wouldn’t have had to break away from the catholic church, (so he could divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn). Anne was Elizabeth’s mother - he had her executed, married Jane Seymour and eventually had a son, and later three more wives. Ironically, the son died young, and Elizabeth proved to be the long reigning Queen during England’s “Golden Years” Beats “The Game of Thrones”!

Finally, much of Stuck (in Time) is set in 1940. WWII wasn’t a period I remember studying either. However, for me growing up in the 1960s it was much more ingrained in our everyday lives. There were always films about the war on the TV. My father, a Jamaican came over to England during the war and enlisted in the Royal Air Force. He remained in the RAF until he retired. So, we lived on RAF bases, I remember the bomb shelters there. Usually there was a “retired” fighter plane at the gates to the camp. My mother was in the land army - they were volunteers who worked on farms in WWII (two land army girls feature in the book). Compared to looking at 1833 for the next book, creating Stuck (in Time) was more a case of writing about what I already knew.



What was the most shocking thing you learned while writing Stuck (in Time)?
I vaguely knew about Internment Camps by the time I started writing the book. I certainly didn’t know about them when I was a boy. We were brought up to believe that we were “the good guys”, and whilst there wasn’t the brutality seen in the German and Japanese WWII concentration camps, there must have been a lot of psychological suffering for people forced to live in camps, and work on the land, just because they were descended from German and Italian people. The same happened for Japanese Americans in the USA. Stuck (in Time) doesn’t dwell on the plight of people in the camps, but they do feature. There’s a book there too - what’s it like to be locked up, when some people think you are the enemy, and others know you are not? When you may have been an educated professional, but now you have to dig up potatoes! It wasn’t like the camps for migrants, say crossing the English Channel in tiny boats, or crossing the border from Mexico, or arriving in a boat on the Australian coast from Vietnam. These were people already living and working in England, who, when war broke out, were rounded up just because they happened to have the wrong parentage.








Other Books by Author
Stuck 1855: Lucy Travels East is a quick-to-read novella set amid a series of intense adventures! Information about the first book, Stuck (in Time) can be found here: https://youngadultshelf.blogspot.com/2020/08/stuck-in-time-by-dave-johnson.html




Links
Dave Johnson’s Website: https://www.stuckdave.co.uk/
Elizabeth Newsham’s Website: http://elizabethnewsham.com/
Publication Date: November 8, 2021