Category: Blog Tour

Blog Tour/Q&A: The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin

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I’m thrilled to be co-hosting the first stop on the blog tour for The Room by the Lake by Emma Dibdin, a dark, unsettling psychological thriller. I’m even more thrilled that Emma has agreed to answer some questions about the book, its inspiration and her approach to writing.

Do check out the post from my co-host, the fabulous Book Addict Rambles . You can also read my review of The Room by the Lake here.

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TheRoombytheLakeAbout the Book

When Caitlin moved from London to New York, she thought she had left her problems behind: her alcoholic father, her dead mother, the pressure to succeed. But now, down to her last dollar in a foreign city, she is desperately lonely.

Then she meets Jake. Handsome, smart, slightly damaged Jake. It looks like she has found the fresh start she longed for. But Caitlin realizes too late that she might become lost forever…

Format: Hardcover Publisher: Head of Zeus Pages: 368
Publication: 10th Aug 2017 Genre: Thriller    

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

Find The Room by the Lake on Goodreads

Interview: Emma Dibdin, author of The Room by the Lake

Welcome, Emma! Without giving too much away, can you tell us a bit about The Room by the Lake?

The Room by the Lake is about a young English woman, Caitlin, who’s just out of university and on the verge of a breakdown. Desperate to escape after years of being a caretaker to unstable parents, she spontaneously books a flight to New York, which feels like a place she can become truly lost. Once there, she falls hard for Jake, a charming and slightly damaged former soldier who whisks her away to meet his family at their idyllic lakeside house upstate. But his family isn’t what it seems.

How did you get the idea for the book?

The idea to write about a cult came from a surreal encounter I had years ago in Seattle, with a man on the street who was protesting against then-president Barack Obama. The man was very young, about my age at the time (early twenties), and his argument was bizarre, illogical, as though he had learned it by rote or by brainwashing. He was polite, but dead-eyed, and the encounter really haunted me, particularly when I learned he was part of a far-right “political movement” which is essentially a cult. They prey on young people, I was told, often people cut off from their own families, and that got me thinking about what would make someone psychologically vulnerable enough to be sucked in.

The Room by the Lake is your first novel so can you tell us a bit about your writing journey?

I’ve always written fiction, for as long as I can remember – my mum loves to talk about how I used to write my own Animals of Farthing Wood stories when I was really young! Being an author was what I always wanted to do, but I went into journalism because it seemed like the best way of making an actual living from writing, and continued writing fiction in my spare time. I wrote The Room by the Lake during evenings and weekends, over the course of about two years, and I think the best thing about writing with limited time is that you can’t afford to be too precious – there’s no such thing as waiting for “the muse” to come.

In the book, Caitlin sees her move to New York as a form of escape.  Where in the world would be your dream place to escape to?

Well, funnily enough I really did move from London to New York two years ago, although not to escape! I think my dream place to escape to is anywhere my family and friends are. I’ve been craving a trip to Italy a lot lately – my parents lived there for years and we spent a lot of time there in my childhood, so I think my answer right now is Tuscany.

In The Room by the Lake, Caitlin comes across as a troubled, fragile, rather socially awkward young woman.  Do you think it’s necessary for readers to like the main character in a book in order to engage with them?

No, I don’t think so – I prefer characters that lean more towards anti-hero than straight hero, and any protagonist who’s not at least slightly troubled is a non-starter. Caitlin’s not necessarily somebody I’d want to be friends with, at least not at this point in her life, but I think her fears and insecurities make her fairly relatable. Female coming-of-age stories often get boxed into just being about sexual awakening, and while that’s definitely an element in Caitlin’s journey, I wanted her struggle to be psychological, and about the burden of mental illness in families.

How did you hope the setting of the book – the vast forest, the silent lake – would contribute to its atmosphere?  

The isolation of that setting is really key to Caitlin’s unravelling. Getting away from hectic city life and escaping to a peaceful forest sounds dreamy, but that experience can really turn on a dime if you’re feeling fragile. There’s such a weird duality to New York specifically: people always think of the city, which is one of the most densely populated in the world, but there’s also this vast expanse of very, very remote farmland upstate. I wanted to really draw out the contrast between those frenetic early chapters in Manhattan – where Caitlin’s shaky but at least engaged in the world – and this slow-paced retreat upstate, where she’s seemingly getting better.

Have you tried any of the dishes mentioned in the book – the sweet potato brownies, the cauliflower rice, or even the Apfelwein?

I’ve tried pretty much all of them! Cauliflower rice is great – I won’t pretend it tastes like the real thing, because it does not, but it’s a pretty good light alternative. I would never want to be fully paleo (in the immortal words of Oprah, I love bread https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2sx8Bc4mAw) but I do enjoy experimenting with ways to make slightly healthier versions of things, although there’s no substitute for a real brownie.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered when writing the book?

The third act was probably my biggest challenge, just working out how things should finally unravel. The first half of the book was always incredibly clear to me, Caitlin walking around New York in this alienated haze and becoming wilfully lost, but the climactic chapters at the cult went through a lot of different iterations. There’s a twist that comes towards the end of the book which wasn’t in my original draft, but came to me suddenly one day last December – and once I’d figured out that turn, everything else fell into place.

Which other writers do you admire?

Margaret Atwood, George Elliot, Elena Ferrante, Cormac McCarthy and Gillian Flynn are a few of my all-time favourites. I just read Robin Wasserman’s Girls On Fire, which was really vivid and intoxicating. I also love to read plays – I saw Angels in America while I was back in London over the summer, and just bought the text so that I can really dig into the language.

What are you working on next?

I’ve just started my second novel, a thriller that takes place in modern Hollywood, following a young journalist who becomes drawn into the life of a very famous actor she’s assigned to interview. Unlike The Room by the Lake, this book draws a bit from my own experiences (I’ve been in entertainment journalism for years) but with the drama cranked up several notches. I’m also working on a short story commissioned by Audible.

Thank you, Emma, for those fascinating answers…and the inside track on your next book.  

EmmaDibdinAbout the Author

Emma: ‘I’m a lifelong writer and pop culture nerd, and feel endlessly grateful to have a job that combines both. Since moving to New York from London two years ago, I’ve spent a lot of time brewing coffee, writing fiction, and covering the ever-broadening selection of Peak TV – all while fighting a one-woman war against the culinary tyranny of cilantro. My first novel, The Room By The Lake, will be published in the UK on 10th August 2017.

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Blog Tour/Extract & Giveaway: The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway

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TheFloatingTheatreBlog tour

I’m delighted to host today’s stop on the blog tour for The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway. I have an extract from the book to share with you as well as my review.  

WinPlus…I’m thrilled to give two lucky people the chance to have their own copy of The Floating Theatre to read and enjoy. Click on the link below to enter the giveaway (open to UK, ROI and Europe only). The giveaway closes on 24th August 2017.

Enter the giveaway

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TheFloatingTheatreAbout the Book

In a nation divided by prejudice, everyone must take a side. When young seamstress May Bedloe is left alone and penniless on the shore of the Ohio, she finds work on the famous floating theatre that plies its trade along the river.  Her creativity and needlework skills quickly become invaluable and she settles in to life among the colourful troupe of actors. She finds friends, and possibly the promise of more… But cruising the border between the Confederate South and the ‘free’ North is fraught with danger. For the sake of a debt that must be repaid, May is compelled to transport secret passengers, under cover of darkness, across the river and on, along the underground railroad.  But as May’s secrets become harder to keep, she learns she must endanger those now dear to her. And to save the lives of others, she must risk her own…

Format: Hardcover Publisher: Bonnier Zaffre Pages: 352
Publication: 15th June 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Amazon.co.uk ǀ Amazon.com ǀ Barnes & Noble ǀ IndieBound
*links provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme

Find The Floating Theatre on Goodreads

 

Extract from The Floating Theatre by Martha Conway

After my father died and my mother sold our dairy farm, there were not many occasions for me to go outside at night. Certainly not in New York with Comfort, or in Boston or Baltimore either. Sometimes, though, as a girl, if my father had to see to one of the cows or check on a batch of cheese, I would go with him to the barn in the moonlight. Night time, or I suppose I should say the dark outside, never frightened me. As a child I had the strange fancy that darkness was more honest than daylight, that the shrubs and trees and the creatures that lived among them were more themselves at night, and the ashy shade of the grass was in fact its true colour rather than the bright hue it took on during the day. Even the darkened river bellowing along below our house assumed its rightful character as it hurried past our farm. Perhaps at night I felt more like a spectator, and I suppose that was for me a comfortable role. I remember the smell of nicodemus flowers, which bloom after sunset, following my father and me as we walked to the barn.

Stepping into Leo’s rowboat that night and waiting while it stopped swaying from my movement, I was keenly aware of the deep colour that descends after the sun goes down, and of all the night noises: the cicadas, the soft gulps of wind, the creaking of the trees. I was glad for the noise, since it masked the sound of my oars pushing the boat away from the dock and the soft plash of the water as I rowed. Leo was right, the boat pulled a little to the right. The water around me shimmered like sealskin: a dark smooth expanse that once in a while caught the moonlight and then quickly absorbed it. At midnight I was supposed to be halfway across the river, where I would make my signal and then get a signal in return. That was all the instruction I got from the woman with the pink handkerchief—no letter with points A, B, and C.

I had to row backwards, of course. For a long time I could still see the squat chimneys of the Floating Theatre that ran up every two staterooms—my room shared its chimney with Hugo’s—each like a little neck topped by a Chinaman’s hat but no face. They seemed to be waiting for something. I pulled the oars back and then back again making a neat swoosh in the water like scissors cutting through fabric, and when I guessed that I was just about in the middle of the river I turned the boat around so that I was facing Kentucky and I took out my father’s watch.

The warm air settled palpably on my shoulders like a short felt cape while I waited for the last few minutes to pass. When it was exactly midnight, I got the gasoline lantern I’d brought along out from under the thwart and lit it. Then I counted to sixty and doused it.

My Review

I was drawn to this book by the description and, I have to admit, the gorgeous cover. I thoroughly enjoyed the story of May and the colourful characters of the Floating Theatre as they travel down river stopping at small towns to give performances to the local people. May’s involvement with the ‘underground railway’ forms an interesting subplot which introduces tension and a sense of jeopardy.

In May, the author has created a complicated character: rather naive, uncomfortable in social situations and someone who takes everything very literally. This helps to explain why May responds as she does to certain events in the narrative.  Because of her tendency to interpret things literally, May initially struggles to understand the concept of a theatrical performance where the objective is to seem ‘real’ when it is actually artificial. You can’t help giving a little silent cheer when she finally learns to suspend her disbelief and become immersed in what she is seeing on the stage in the way Hugo, the theatre owner, hoped she would.

‘But then, rather quickly if the actors are any good, something happens and somehow you drop into the fiction of the Italian countryside, and there you are. You forget all about the people around you because the only people that exist are the actors on stage, and the only world is the world they are playing out for you. You’ve lost yourself in the fiction.’

I received an advance reader copy courtesy of NetGalley and publishers, Bonnier Zaffre, in return for an honest review. [The book is published under the title The Underground River in the US.]

In three words: Enjoyable, dramatic, engaging

Try something similar…The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

MarthaConwayAbout the Author

Martha Conway is the author of Thieving Forest, Sugarland, and 12 Bliss Street, which was nominated for an Edgar Award for Best First Novel. She’s received several awards for historical fiction, including the North American Book Award. Her short fiction has been published in the Iowa Review, the Carolina Quarterly, The Quarterly, Folio, and other journals.  Martha teaches creative writing for Stanford University’s Continuing Studies Program and UC Berkeley Extension.  Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Martha is one of seven sisters. She currently lives in San Francisco.

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