Author: whatcathyreadnext

Blog Tour/Book Review: The Word for Freedom: Short Stories of Women’s Suffrage edited by Amanda Saint & Rose McGinty

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I’m delighted to be co-hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for The Word for Freedom, a short story collection celebrating a hundred years of women’s suffrage published today.  Do check out today’s review by my tour buddy, Bev at Reading for Pleasure.  On the tour banner at the bottom of this post, you’ll find details of the other great book bloggers taking part in the tour.

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The Word for FreedomAbout the Book

A collection of 24 short stories celebrating a hundred years of women’ suffrage, from both established and emerging authors, all of whom have been inspired by the suffragettes and whose stories, whether set in 1918, the current day or the future, focus on the same freedoms that those women fought for so courageously.

Authors who have donated stories include:

  • Sophie Duffy, author of The Generation Game
  • Angela Readman, Costa Short Story Award winner
  • Anna Mazzola, author of The Story Keeper and winner of the Edgar Allen Poe award
  • Isabel Costello, author of Paris, Mon Amour and host of The Literary Sofa blog
  • Angela Clarke, best-selling author of the Social Media Murders series
  • Karen Hamilton, author of The Perfect Girlfriend
  • Helen Irene Young, author of The May Queen
  • Victoria Richards, journalist and award-winning short story writer
  • Cath Bore, feminist short story writer and broadcaster

A clerk of works at the Palace of Westminster encounters Emily Davison in a broom cupboard; a mermaid dares to tread on land to please the man she loves; a school girl friendship makes the suffragette protests relevant to the modern day; a mother leaves her child for a tree; an online troll has to face his target; and a woman caught in modern day slavery discovers a chance for freedom in a newspaper cutting.

These stories and many more come together in a collection that doesn’t shy away from the reality of a woman’s world, which has injustices and inequalities alongside opportunities and hard-won freedoms, but always finds strength, bravery and hope.

Through this anthology Retreat West Books is proud to support Hestia and the UK Says No More campaign against domestic abuse and sexual violence.

Format: Paperback, ebook (pp.)    Publisher: Retreat West Books
Published: 1st November 2018      Genre: Short Stories

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  ǀ Hive.co.uk (supporting UK bookshops)
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Word for Freedom on Goodreads

My Review

What I found fascinating about this collection of short stories was the different ways the various contributors chose to interpret the theme, exploring ideas about the place of women in the world then and now in a variety of ways.  Whether it’s freedom from control by others (men, social expectations, tradition) or freedom to pursue their own desires and interests, the stories provide a message of hope but don’t shy away from the inequality, prejudice and discrimination that women have faced and that unfortunately many women still face.  The scourge of modern slavery, arranged/forced marriage and rape are revealed in often powerful and thought-provoking ways.

Given the high quality of all the contributions it seems almost unfair to single out individual stories.  However, there were a few that caught my eye because of their historical focus.

  • ‘Counting for England’ – the inside story (excuse the pun) of a famous act of protest
  • ‘One Woman, One Vote’ – a woman exercising her right to vote for the first time demonstrates, through her own quiet act of rebellion, that her husband doesn’t know best when it comes to how she should cast her vote.
  • ‘Cover Their Bright Faces’ – past inequality is revealed when two women discover the poignant story of Portia who was unable to be recognised for her achievements or to live and love freely in the way they now can. ‘We live the promise that Portia only scented.’  
  • ‘Myopia’ – a woman for whom the war provided the opportunity to hold a position of responsibility challenges the ‘myopia’ of her seemingly diminished horizons now the war has ended.

The Word for Freedom is a wonderful collection of imaginative and thought-provoking stories.  Like all short story collections, it’s ideal for dipping in and out of when you have the freedom (sorry!) of the odd spare moment and small enough to be popped in a handbag or briefcase.   Although the majority of the contributors are female, I don’t think it should be regarded as a book just for women.  I believe readers of any gender would gain much from the stories it contains.

I received a review copy courtesy of publishers, Retreat West Books, and Random Things Blog Tours.

About Amanda Saint

Amanda Saint founded and runs Retreat West, providing creative writing competitions and courses, and in 2017 launched Retreat West Books, an independent press publishing paperback books and ebooks. Amanda’s debut novel, As If I Were A River, was a NetGalley Top 10 Book of the Month and a Book Magnet Blog Top 20 Book of 2016.  Her new novel, Remember Tomorrow, is coming in 2019.  Her short stories have been widely published and been log and shortlisted for, and won, various prizes.

Connect with Amanda

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

About Rose McGinty

Rose McGinty is the author of Electric Souk.  She lives in Kent and is a creative writing tutor and editor at Retreat West.  Previously she worked for the NHS.  Rose has won a number of writing competitions and had short stories selected for anthologies.  She also enjoys running creative writing workshops in support of social causes.

Connect with Rose

Twitter  ǀ Goodreads

The Word for Freedom Blog Tour Poster

Book Blast: A Different Kind of Fire by Suanne Schafer

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04_ADKOF_Book Blast Banner_FINAL

I’m delighted to be taking part in the celebrations to mark publication day of A Different Kind of Fire by Suanne Schafer.  Watch the book trailer here.

WinFor US readers only, there’s a giveaway with a chance to win a Fiery Bookish Prize Pack, including a literary scarf, beaded velvet bookmark, a copy of A Different Kind of Fire and a $10 Amazon Gift Card! Read the terms and conditions and enter via the form on the tour page here.

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02_A Different Kind of FireAbout A Different Kind of Fire

Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, even the guts to enrol in art school, leaving behind her childhood home and the beau she always expected to marry. Her life at the Academy seems heavenly at first, but she soon learns that societal norms in the East are as restrictive as those back home in West Texas.

Rebelling against the insipid imagery women are expected to produce, Ruby embraces bohemian life. Her burgeoning sexuality drives her into a life-long love affair with another woman and into the arms of an Italian baron. With the Panic of 1893, the nation spirals into a depression, and Ruby’s career takes a similar downward trajectory. After thinking she could have it all, Ruby, now pregnant and broke, returns to Texas rather than join the queues at the neighbourhood soup kitchen.

Set against the Gilded Age of America, a time when suffragettes fight for reproductive rights and the right to vote, A Different Kind of Fire depicts one woman’s battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Ruby’s choices mould her in ways she could never have foreseen.

Praise for A Different Kind of Fire

“Writer Suanne Schafer spins a unique tale of a turn of the 19th century Texas heroine and her way of artistic expression.  A Different Kind of Fire depicts the journey of a determined woman to meet life on her own terms.” [Pamela Morsi, USA Today bestselling author of 26 books including The Cotton Queen and Bitsy’s Bait & BBQ]

“If you love historical novels about women who throw off the shackles of feminine convention, then this book is for you. In spare but sensuous prose reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy and E. Annie Proulx, Schafer brings Ruby Schmidt to life – a woman who doesn’t belong in the late nineteenth century but gradually finds her place in the twentieth. This is a powerful and deeply satisfying read.” [Helena Echlin, co-author of Sparked and author of Gone]

“An exceptional first novel. Schafer has woven a cohesive tale from disparate elements–a stark life in the rugged countryside of 1890s Texas vs the gentility of an arts academy in the East; a traditional marriage and motherhood vs a secret and haunting sexuality. Unequivocally recommended!” [Michael R. Hardesty, author of Amazon Best Seller, The Grace of the Ginkgo]

“With rare artistry, Schafer paints a life both creative and cursed in A Different Kind of Fire”. [Willa Blair, award-winning Amazon and Barnes & Noble #1 bestselling author of His Highland Love, Highland Troth, Highland Seer, and ten other books]

“The saga of a young woman determined to follow her dream, whatever obstacles cross her path.” [M J Fredrick, author of A Texas Kind of Love, Smitten in a Small Town, and twenty-five other books, two-time Epic Awards winner and four-time RWA Golden Heart finalist]

“Told in a rich, sensual, style, A Different Kind of Fire is a book about reconciling the irreconcilable. It is a book about boundaries: the dilemmas they place upon those would dare rise above them.” [James Hanna, author of The Siege, Call Me Pomeroy, and A Second, Less Head and Other Rogue Stories]

“Suanne Schafer’s A Different Kind of Fire tackles the sensitive subject of bisexuality in 19th century America with grace, compassion, and empathy through fully developed characters in a story readers will cherish long after the book ends.” [C.S. Fuqua, author of Walking after Midnight: Collected Stories]

Format: Paperback, audiobook (pp.)    Publisher: Waldorf  Publishing
Published: 1st November 2018      Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk  ǀ  Amazon.com  | Publisher
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find A Different Kind of Fire on Goodreads

03_Suanne SchaferAbout the Author

Suanne Schafer, born in West Texas at the height of the Cold War, finds it ironic that grade school drills for tornadoes and nuclear war were the same: hide beneath your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. Now a retired family-practice physician whose only child has fledged the nest, her pioneer ancestors and world travels fuel her imagination. She originally planned to write romances, but either as a consequence of a series of failed relationships or a genetic distrust of happily ever after, her heroines are strong women who battle tough environments and intersect with men who might – or might not – love them.

Suanne completed the Stanford University Creative Writing Certificate program. Her short works have been featured in print and on-line magazines and anthologies. Her debut women’s fiction novel, A Different Kind of Fire, explores the life of Ruby Schmidt, a nineteenth century artist who escapes – and returns – to West Texas. Suanne’s next book explores the heartbreak and healing of an American physician caught up in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Connect with Suanne

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Pinterest ǀ Goodreads