Love of Shadows Word Puzzle

Judith, the heroine of my book Girl in the Glass and its sequel Love of Shadows, is trained as a perfume-maker. As a result I have had a wonderful time researching the various ingredients and methods used in traditional perfume-making.

Below is a scrambled word puzzle; all the words are materials used in making scents.

Love of Shadows will be free next week - 26th - 28th March at Amazon (US) and Amazon (UK)



About the Book:

"I had always felt most alive, when I was healing. Without healing I was a tin top spinning out of kilter soon to catch the ground. It took all my energy to hold myself from skidding into chaos."

In the city of Pharsis traditional women healers are banned from practising and the penalty for breaking the law is death by hanging. After being arrested and interrogated twice Judith is careful to avoid suspicion, but then scarlet fever breaks over the city like a poisonous wave, leaving in its wake the small corpses of children. What will the young healer do?

Love of Shadows is the second novel in The Healer's Shadow trilogy, which began with Girl in the Glass, and follows the lives of Judith and her Shadow, Sarah. It is a study in grief, love and defiance.

About the Author:

Zoe Brooks is a British writer and poet, who spends half her life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where she writes all her novels and poetry. She aims to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Zoe was a successful published poet in her teens and twenties, (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). In May 2012 she published her long poem for voices Fool's Paradise as an ebook on Amazon, which has just won an EPIC ebook award. Zoe has three novels published Mother of Wolves, Girl in the Glass and her latest book Love of Shadows.

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Featured Book: Love of Shadows by Zoe Brooks

Free January 16 - 19!

"I had always felt most alive, when I was healing. Without healing I was a tin top spinning out of kilter soon to catch the ground. It took all my energy to hold myself from skidding into chaos."

But in the city of Pharsis traditional women healers are banned from practising and the penalty for breaking the law is death by hanging. After being arrested and interrogated twice Judith is careful to avoid suspicion, but then scarlet fever breaks over the city like a poisonous wave, leaving in its wake the small corpses of children. What will the young healer do?

Love of Shadows is the second novel in The Healer's Shadow trilogy, which began with Girl in the Glass, and follows the lives of Judith and her Shadow, Sarah. It is a study in grief, love and defiance.

Praise for Love of Shadows:

"Zoe Brooks' writing style delighted me." ~ Andrea, Goodreads.com

"heartfelt story" ~ Shalini, Book Review

"A great sequel to the first book that leaves me on the edge of my seat for the final installment." ~ Georgia, Need to Reads, Got to Watch 

Buy the Book!
Amazon US  *  Amazon UK

Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. Featured Books is a free announcement feature and all information is provided by the author unless otherwise noted.
 

Related articles

• Writer Wednesday: Zoe Brooks (girl-who-reads.com)
• Introducing Author Zoe Brooks (lleandersreviewsandinterviews.wordpress.com)

Writer Wednesday: Zoe Brooks

First I would like to thank you Donna for hosting me on this Writer's Wednesday. In this post I want to talk about the games authors play to enable them to write.

A few days ago the BBC aired a programme following writer Ian Rankin while he wrote his latest book. I was hugely impressed that Rankin agreed to doing a video diary through the stressful process of writing the first draft of a novel. I know I would never do it and I wondered whether Rankin having writen dozens of successful books did not have the barren patches and bouts of self doubt that we mere mortals endure. But no, there was Rankin running out of steam at page sixty- five, reverting as his wife put it to being a selfish teenager, and running off to the cafe to read a newspaper which he claimed was research.

In February, when Rankin was still struggling with the novel, his wife took their children on holiday to allow her husband the peace to write. Virginia Woolf said that "A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction," and, I would add, an understanding husband. I was unable to write after I became a mother, partly because of the constant distractions and partly because I shared my room with my son and the television. I now have a room at the top of the house in England in what used to be my son's room (he now lives in London) and a whole house in the Czech Republic.

But even if you have a room of your own, as Ian Rankin can vouch, it doesn't mean you can concentrate on your writing. I have always had the ability for high concentration, which I inherited from my mother - there is a family saying "Never talk to a Holtom when they are reading" because we won't notice you. Even so I have difficulty achieving the concentration levels I need in order to write. Rankin is not alone in seeking the stimulation of coffee, many writers do. WH Auden drank endless cups of tea and so do I. The German writer Schiller had to have rotten apples in his desk, the smell of which for some reason stimulated him to write. My story editor friend Hannah stopped writing scripts because she chain-smoked when sitting at her laptop.

Rankin uses favourite rock albums as the background to his writing. I will play the same CD over and over again - it is about using the music to set a mood and to exclude other noises. My favourite band for this is Dead Can Dance, which I discovered when I wrote my first novel Girl in the Glass three years ago. I have played their music while writing Mother of Wolves and my latest novel Love of Shadows. I will be playing it in a few days when I sit down to face a blank screen and the beginning of my next book. I am not playing it to be entertained, I don't want to think about the music, which is why I play the same cd over and over again. It is about getting into the right part of my mind.

But sometimes, no matter what music is playing nor how many mugs of tea I drink, nothing is enough. The external world still intrudes. On such occasions I will close the curtains, even though it may be broad daylight outside. If that doesn't work, I have two options. The first is to walk away, to pick up my basket and go picking mushrooms. The second is to go to bed (no matter what time of day it is) and allow my subconscious to take over. You'd be surprised how many authors do that (or maybe you wouldn't).

I would welcome any comments about what you do to enhance concentration - favourite music, routines, whatever. I might just try them.

About the Author:
 

Zoe Brooks is a British writer and poet who spends half her life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where she writes all her novels and poetry. She aims to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Zoe was a successful published poet in her teens and twenties (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). Zoe has just published her latest novel Love of Shadows, which continues the story of the young healer Judith and her Shadow Sarah, whom we first met in Zoe's first book Girl
in the Glass.

Connect with the Author:

Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0034P3TDS
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5772880

The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, beliefs, or opinions of Girl Who Reads.

Meet the Author: Zoe Brooks

I suppose the most interesting thing about me is my connection with the Czech Republic, where I now have a house and where I do most of my writing.

My second paid job (there were lots of unpaid jobs before, but we won't mention them) was running the Puppet Centre in London. It was a brilliant job: organizing training, performances, national and international festivals and exhibitions and working with puppeteers across the UK. Anyone who has visited Prague will have seen the many shops selling hand-carved puppets and the puppet theatres. In 1968 with the Soviet repression of the Prague Spring a number of the Czech puppeteers fled their country and made their way to swinging London and fifteen years later were still there.

Although I gave up my job when my son was born, work wouldn't give up on me. I kept being offered freelance work, including the opportunity to organise an exhibition of television and film puppets for the Liverpool Festival of Comedy. I wrote to all my contacts (this was the 1980's when you still wrote letters) and asked if they would loan a puppet or two. One day the phone rang and a soft low woman's voice with a Czech accent said she had a puppet from a children's series of Czech folktales, which she had made, but she wasn't sure if I would want it. It turned out she lived very near me, so I went over to have a look.

Little did I know as I climbed the rusty cast-iron staircase to the top of a large old house overlooking Blackheath that my life was about to change. The door opened and I was invited in. I sat in the sitting room waiting. On the table near me a tree branch was hung with painted eggs, in the bookcase was an eclectic collection of fairytales, Jungian psychology, film and Czech and English literature, a music score sat open on a grand piano. The puppeteer returned with a large grandpa fox puppet. Not sure if I'd want it - of course I did. The puppeteer grinned and offered me some tea. Soon we were drinking and talking. It was the first of hundreds of mugs of tea we have shared.

Krumlov in autumn

When the Berlin Wall fell, I went with my friend to Prague. It was one of the most incredible experiences I have had in my life. I was left alone to wander the still wintry streets for five days, as my friend renewed acquaintances and visited long unseen relatives. The joy of freedom hung in the air like the incense, but it was mixed with a grief for those who had not survived to share it. I wandered without a map, soaking it all in, loving the architecture and the history, loving the smiles on people's faces. When I got back, much to my friend's delight I wrote a long poem for voices called Fool's Paradise.

After a year or so my friend moved back and I continued to visit her. I can't explain why, but I felt at home in the Czech Republic and still do. I have always loved fairytales and the Czechs do too. Not Disney twee, but tales rooted in the dark places of the forest. When my friend moved to Cesky Krumlov in South Bohemia, I followed and discovered the forests and mountains of the books I had loved as a child. Back in the United Kingdom I was now working in community regeneration. helping the most disadvantaged in society. It was emotionally and spiritually demanding work and I needed the trips to central Europe to renew my strength. My friend urged me to start writing again, but I could not. As I was visiting three times a year, I decided I would buy somewhere in the hope that it could be a writer's retreat and my lovely husband agreed.

Olsina Lake

I bought an old run-down farmhouse on the edge of a small village near the border of the Sumava National Park. It's only seven miles to Cesky Krumlov and only fifteen minutes walk to the nearest forest. At first I didn't write anything more than a few short poems. I was focusing on restoring the house and making it habitable, meanwhile my job in England was getting more and more demanding. Then came a crisis: suddenly all my layers of thick skin had been peeled off by the emotional pressure of my work and I was left with no protection. My employers decided that they would wind-up the company. That stage of my life was over.

Encouraged by my husband and friend I decided I would try my hand at writing a novel. This time after two months the house delivered on its promise. Four books have followed, all of them written in my Czech hideaway. The house still isn't fully restored and is pretty basic, but I love it. The furniture may be second-hand, but there are books everywhere and the walls are covered by folk art and my Czech friend's prints. People ask "Aren't you homesick?" and the answer is "I have two homes." In three weeks time I will be going home to the Czech Republic to write the last book in The Healer's Shadow trilogy.

* My note: I spend a week in the Czech Republic in 2010. It is such a picturesque place. I can definitely understand Zoe's love for the place.

About the Author:

Zoe Brooks is a British writer and poet, who spends half her life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where she writes all her novels and poetry. Zoe aims to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Zoe was a successful published poet in her teens and twenties, (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). In May 2012 she published her long poem for voices Fool's Paradise as an ebook on Amazon. Girl In The Glass - the first novel in a trilogy about the woman and healer Anya was published on Amazon in March 2012. Mother of Wolves is her second novel.

She has a liking for books in which reality and fantasy meet. Her favourite books include Master and Margarita (Bulgakov), One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Marquez), Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman), Jane Eyre, Bull From The Sea (Renault), and Woman Who Waited (Makine).

Connect with Zoe:
Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0034P3TDS
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5772880 

The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, beliefs, or opinions of Girl Who Reads.

Related articles

• Write at Home: Zoe Brooks, author of Mother of Wolves (theindieexchange.com)
• Zoe Brooks: Playing with Status (guest post) (girl-who-reads.com)
• Guest Post: A Historical Perspective - Zoe Brooks (tweedling.com)

Zoe Brooks: Playing with Status (guest post)

For Writer Wednesday, I would like to introduce you to British writer and poet, Zoe Brooks. She recently released her second novel, Mother of Wolves, which is will share with you today.

Playing with Status
 
I have recently contributed a post over on Indie Exchange about the importance of status in storytelling. In summary human beings are social beings and as such we are fascinated by social standing (status). The reader naturally sides with the underdog and is held when there is a shift in status. Many conversations and all arguments play on status. So I thought for this post I would show how I used it in one part of my novel Mother of Wolves. I had tremendous fun writing this section, which is a pivotal point in the book.

Throughout the first part of the book the central character, Lupa, has been the underdog in her pursuit of revenge against her husband’s murderers, but now she is a powerful queen of the gypsies. There’s still one  man left whom she has sworn to kill, but their relative status has changed. Now Jo, her target, is the underdog and so the reader is more likely to sympathize with him rather than side with Lupa, which is good because I wanted to explore whether revenge was always right and what it might do to my heroine.

Jo accepts the justice of the situation (i.e. accepts Lupa’s status) and as a result the reader sympathizes with him even more and wants Lupa to show mercy. But that causes a problem. Apart from from Lupa’s inner  conflict over whether to kill Jo or not, the scene would have no tension if Jo is passive. This problem is resolved by using other characters. First Lupa falls out with her councillors over whether to kill Jo. Then Jo’s fiancée, Bessie, arrives and Lupa meets her equal: the stage is set for a struggle.

My story-editor mentor came from the film industry and my son is a scriptwriter, so I tend to see the scenes in the book as if they are in a film. Or rather I see them and act them out. There are a series of conversations between Bessie and Lupa and I enjoyed playing with how the status shifts between the two characters, using verbal and non-verbal signs. It starts with Lupa in a position of power, she is seated while Bessie must stand. At first Bessie has her head bowed and Lupa cannot see why Bessie had had such a hold over Jo. But then Bessie looks Lupa in the eye and it’s as if two swords have clashed at the beginning of a duel. The verbal games include the use of familiarity, as when Bessie addresses as Lupa by her name rather than by her title, while Lupa uses formal language to reinforce her position as queen. I would like to claim that I planned it all, but the way we vie for status in nearly every human interaction is so subtle and so subconscious, that just
by acting the scene out I introduced some elements of competition without thinking about it and then found them when I looked back on what I had written.

At this point I will exercise my high status as the book’s writer and not tell you what happens next and who wins (withholding information is a classic status trick), because of course I want you to read my book.

Through the marshes and rich farmland of the great river, Lupa hunts and is hunted by her husband’s murderers. On the estuary islands her sons and their protector are just one step ahead of the killers. Everyone underestimates Lupa, if they consider her at all. They are making a mistake. The odds may be against her, but Lupa is the daughter of a fox and the mother of wolves.

This fantasy adventure is a revenge story with a twist, an alternative history of the gypsies and a profile of the rise of a woman leader all in one book.

Find Mother of Wolves at Goodreads and Amazon



About the author:
Zoe Brooks is a British writer and poet, who spends half her life in a partly restored old farmhouse in the Czech Republic, where she writes all her novels and poetry. Zoe aims to write popular books, which have complex characters and themes that get under the reader's skin.

Zoe was a successful published poet in her teens and twenties, (featuring in the Grandchildren of Albion anthology). In May 2012 she published her long poem for voices Fool's Paradise as an ebook on Amazon. Girl In The Glass - the first novel in a trilogy about the woman and healer Anya was published on Amazon in March 2012. Mother of Wolves is her second novel.

She has a liking for books in which reality and fantasy meet. Her favourite books include Master and Margarita (Bulgakov), One Hundred Years Of Solitude (Marquez), Good Omens (Pratchett and Gaiman), Jane Eyre, Bull From The Sea (Renault), and Woman Who Waited (Makine).

Connect with Zoe:
Blog: http://zoebrooks.blogspot.com
Twitter http://twitter.com/ZoeBrooks2
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ZoeBrooksAuthor
Amazon author page http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0034P3TDS
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5772880