Bookalicious Travel Addict: guest post

TITLE - Letters From Malta

AUTHOR - Mary Rensten

PAGES - 234

FORMAT - Kindle or Paperback

Click here to Purchase

SYNOPSIS
"When Jane Thornfield finds an envelope hidden in her mother's bedroom drawer it heralds the beginning of a journey of discovery. Long buried family secrets are unearthed and Jane is forced to question her very identity.

Jane's search for the truth takes her to Malta, where she learns about the harsh realities of life during the Siege of Malta in the Second World War. But her attempts to unlock a fifty-year-old secret are met with suspicion and a wall of silence.

Letters from Malta is about a woman's quest to make sense of her present and her past. The setting of Malta is brought vividly to life in this moving, perceptive tale of love and loss."

MY REVIEW

Having been to Malta myself, several times as a child then again as an adult; and with a Husband who grew up in Malta with an RAF Father, I was most intrigued to read this book.

It was a well researched book both based on Malta of today and during WWII. My Uncle actually

helped with the set up of the War Museum in Valletta so I was used to it as a child as Malta's history was drummed into me. Having driven the roads of Malta many times, before and after they had tarmac, I could picture the routes the author was describing that Jane had travelled along. When she was speaking of the car garage in the book, it brought back fond memories of a friend we made in Malta called Charlie (they're all called Charlie) who owned a garage, and it really warmed me.

I enjoyed the flow of the book and the descriptive natures of each character she met along the way. I found she brought the people alive and vivid images of what they looked like came into my head.

It was a good storyline, with twists and turns and disappointments along the way. There were lots of questions that had to be answered and it made me want to keep on reading it.

It was a nice light-hearted read and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

MEET THE AUTHOR.

Mary Rensten is the vice-President of the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. Her novel "Letters from Malta" has just been published by Corazon Books.

Mary's novel was inspired by trips she made to Malta, and facts she learned about the harsh life for the islanders during WWII.

How a Holiday in Malta inspired my novel.

‘Malta? Never been there,’ I said.

‘So let’s go.’

A fortnight of sunshine and swimming, with unhurried drives in a hire car around an island only 16 miles long. How relaxing that would be! Except that my husband had a plan. ‘We‘ll visit the silent city of Mdina, the ancient temple ruins at Hagar Qim, maybe the Buskett Gardens where the Knights of Malta flew their falcons, some of the cemeteries …’

‘Cemeteries? No!’

‘Military cemeteries. There’s one near an old airfield, Ta’ Qali ; remember what a strategic place Malta was in the Second World War?’

‘Oh, all right then, just one.’

A small rusty sign on the road to Rabat led us into a narrow lane, to a high wall and cypress trees. We parked the car, opened the creaky iron gate, walked respectfully, not speaking, along the path, looking at the incised stone slabs on either side, many of them - too many - marking the graves of young men who had died on this island in the 1940s. What sort of lives had they led here, these soldiers and airmen? Did they have Maltese wives, girlfriends? What if one of them were to fall in love with a girl in England, then come out here and …

‘I have to come here again,’ I said.

‘Oh no, it’s not giving you ideas, is it?’

Suddenly I wanted to see all the places on my husband’s list. As the story in my head took shape, I would see them, not just as a tourist, but as someone who had been here during a very dark time in Malta’s history, a time of constant air raids and the threat of invasion. Had my ‘hero’ - I called him Peter and he was in the Royal Artillery - worked at Ta’ Qali perhaps? Had he walked around Mdina? luzzu fishing boats. Had Peter seen these, too? So much to see, so much to imagine!

Was he here when a bomb dropped on Mosta Cathedral, but did not explode; when the convoys with desperately needed supplies limped into Valletta Harbour? I had my own list now: the prehistoric cart tracks, the Blue Grotto, its luminous water shading from ultramarine to turquoise, villages like Marsaxlokk, with a harbour full of colourful

‘Enough,’ my husband said. We went for healthy walks along the Marfa Ridge, the wild headland at the northern end of the island; we swam and sunned ourselves.

Two years later, when we had our second holiday in Malta, it was no longer just Peter’s story; I had a ‘heroine’, writer Jane Thornfield, coming here and uncovering the past. I was now seeing Malta through the eyes of both Jane and Peter, whose stories are linked, and when I met Maltese people, all so helpful, so willing to talk to me, even taking me to their homes, I was able to ask the questions that Jane would have asked.

My fiction had become a reality, and when I went back to Imtarfa cemetery to check a few final details before we went home, I found it hard to believe that Peter was not buried there.

‘Is that it then? Are we done with Malta?’

‘No. I want to come back. There could be another story here.’

Reviews for Mary's book.

Letters from Malta is about a woman's quest to make sense of her present and her past. The setting of Malta is brought vividly to life in this moving, perceptive tale of love and loss.

"The story sweeps you along and the characters are so real." Suzannah Dunn, best-selling historical novelist (The Sixth Wife, The May Bride)

"I couldn't put this down. I couldn't wait to find out what had happened in Malta 60 years ago." Meg Alexander, romantic novelist

"It has just the right combination of drama, humour, romance and intrigue to make it perfect reading at home or on holiday." TAR Entertainment

How does a man really feel after the break-up of a 20-year marriage?

Publisher: Against the Grain Press (Dec. 26, 2012)
Category: Contemporary Fiction/Literary Fiction/Humor/Relationships
Tour Date: November 4-19, 2013
Available in: eBook, 325 pages

With MY YEAR AS A CLOWN, Robert Steven Williams introduces us to Chuck Morgan, a new kind of male hero—imperfect and uncertain—fumbling his way forward in the aftermath of the abrupt collapse of his 20-year marriage.

Initially, Chuck worries he’ll never have a relationship again, that he could stand in the lobby of a brothel with a hundred dollar bill plastered to his forehead and still not get laid. But as the emotionally raw, 365-day odyssey unfolds, Chuck gradually relearns to live on his own, navigating the minefield of issues faced by being suddenly single—new routines, awkward dates, and even more awkward sex.

With My Year As a Clown, Robert Steven Williams will attract fans of the new breed of novelists that includes Nick Hornby, Jonathan Tropper, Lolly Winston, and Tom Perrotta, delivering painfully honest glimpses into the modern male psyche while writing about both sexes with equal ease and grace in a way that’s hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.

Robert Steven Williams is the recipient of the Silver Medal for popular fiction in the 2013 Independent Publisher Book Awards for My Year as a Clown.

Watch the Video:

Guest post written especially for me by the author in relation to a question I asked him.

I want to thank Lisa for hosting me on her site for My Year as a Clown. Since Lisa is from the UK, I thought I’d take a different tact with this posting and address the cross-cultural aspects of my novel.

– My Year as a Clown chronicles a year in the life of Chuck Morgan, where day one is the spectacular, but brutal break-up of his marriage when his wife of twenty years informs him that she’s leaving for another man.

As you can imagine, the year starts off pretty crappy. Chuck’s story, though, is about second chances and the opportunity to reconnect with family and friends, and of course reinvent himself.

My Year as a Clown raises lots of issues about how men and women see relationships differently. Chuck’s older brother, Jimmy is single, never been married and Chuck believes him to be misogynist. In many respects he his, but it isn’t until this break-up that the brothers start really talking, and only then does Chuck learn the truth behind Jimmy’s posturing.

Funny how when disaster strikes, sometimes good things happen.

Clown explores the feelings men have about relationships and it also delves into men’s inability to give voice to those feelings and emotions. An added communication complexity for Chuck’s marriage was the fact he was American and his wife was British.

I believe that Bernard Shaw said America and England are divided by a common language. This reminds me of an incident that happened to me when I was working in England for the British company HMV. It was a great job and I loved living in the UK. I had the fortunate opportunity to work for the chairman of the company and I remember one day walking into his office with a document and saying: I need your John Hancock on this. He looked at me askance, as if I was off my rocker. Perhaps many of you don’t know what I’m referring to either.

In the US, this is a common expression and refers to getting someone’s signature, as in John Hancock, the man who signed the Declaration of Independence large enough to ensure that the King of England need not wear his spectacles to read his name.

As you can imagine, that went over big with the chairman of HMV.

For Chuck Morgan, left to pick up the pieces after his wife dashes off with another man, he’s wondering what went wrong, and what signals he missed. Part of the problem he recognizes is that Americans and the English have very different cultural references that create potential issues when it comes to conveying feelings and dealing with conflict.

I hope that the book provokes some thoughts about men, women and relationships. People say that it’s actually very funny. I didn’t set out to be funny, it just came out that way!

I was fortunate to have My Year as a Clown edited by Joy Johannessen, a gifted editor that also worked on Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones. There’s also a song in the book, available as a free download. It was produced by my friend, the Irish singer/songwriter Declan O’Rourke. We’ve done a couple of shows together here in the States and it was a true privilege to work with him.

Lisa wanted to know how being a songwriter helps my fiction, a great question:

Praise for Robert Steven Williams and My Year As a Clown:

“Realism, humor and insight are mostly the order of the day in My Year as a Clown: a fairly complex novel whose epilogue drives home the notion that, while Chuck’s life may have some things that go well, it does not have a Hollywood-type happy ending.“- Charles Baker, IndieReader

“Williams’ characters give us the real-deal: a gut wrenching and often humorous look, showing us the everyday horrors of what it’s like to start all over again as one approaches middle age.”-Suzan-Lori Parks, novelist, playwright and screenwriter. Winner, 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Topdog/Underdog“Merits aplenty it had. Topping them was the humor sometimes gentle and subtle but that reached ROFL proportions at times. There were a number of eccentric characters that stay with me months later as memories that get confused with memories of someone I once knew. Not that I’m confusing the characters with someone I ever knew but when something triggers a vague memory of them, I’m at first searching my memories of real people from my past before it dawns on me they were characters in a novel. Which is high marks for the author. The journal like format for the story gave it an easy flow and worked well to allow us to follow Chuck through the morass of the first months and the slog towards happy that followed.” Joy Renee, Joyful Story

“Chuck is an interesting character, but in the end he is just the guy next door. An average Joe of sorts. I really enjoyed reading the book in the guys view. There are a scarce amount of books following the man’s POV after a divorce or break-up (or just in general). I also loved how it seemed that Chuck was writing some sort of journal to keep his sanity throughout Claudia leaving him.

I really enjoyed the array of characters the author gave us. Chuck met some rather interesting people along the way.

I enjoyed the journey and it really made me think about myself and what I would do in a similar situation. Even though I’m a chicka and he is a male, I still found myself connecting to him.”-Carole Rae, Carole Rae’s Random Ramblings

“My Year As A Clown is an honest portrayal of both heartbreak and healing. When Chuck finds his wife’s betrayal I really felt his pain. Yet through the humor, humility and honesty, Williams was able to lead us into the depths of an emotional male. All of the doubts, insecurities, and even the fears have all been revealed. I enjoyed the true honesty of My Year As A Clown and highly recommend Williams novel to anyone that needs a pick me up or even words of encouragement.”- Brianna, A Book & a Latte

About Robert Steven Williams:

Robert Steven Williams is an author, singer-songwriter, and musician. His debut novel, My Year as a Clown (Against the Grain Press), was released in January 2013.

As a writer, Williams was a finalist in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and was awarded a Squaw Valley Writers Community Thayer Scholarship. He attended Bread Loaf, Sewanee and the Squaw Valley Writers’ Conferences, and worked closely with the esteemed fiction writer, Barry Hannah. His short fiction has appeared in Carve Magazine, The Orange Coast Review, and the anthology Tall Tales and Short Stories Volume II. Additionally, he was the executive producer of the critically acclaimed BOOM! Studios CBGB Comic series, nominated in 2011 for a Harvey Award for Best Anthology. Robert’s work has also appeared in Poets & Writers Magazine, Billboard, USA Today and LetterPress, a newsletter for writers. He is also co-author of the best-selling business book, The World’s Largest Market.

As a musician, Williams studied songwriting with Rosanne Cash, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and other top country writers. In 2005, he released the critically acclaimed CD “I Am Not My Job,” featuring Rachel Z (Peter Gabriel, Wayne Shorter) and Sloan Wainwright.