Tag: historical fiction

Blog Tour: Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich

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I’m delighted to be participating in the blog tour today for Port of No Return by Michelle Saftich.  Port of Return, published in 2015, is the first book in a two book series.   The sequel, Wanderers No More, was published in 2017 and continues the story of the Saforo family, although it can also be read as a standalone.

WinYou can check out the full tour schedule here where, if you scroll right down to the bottom of the page, you can also enter the giveaway (INTL) for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card.  Don’t hang about as entries close at 1:59pm EST on 27th April 2018.

I had been hoping to read and review Port of No Return for the tour but that didn’t work out.  Instead, here’s a few highlights from other stops on the tour

‘Such a beautiful and authentic look at war, humanity and the strength of family.’  Pursuing Stacie’s review of Port of No Return  

‘It would seem the desire to write is in my genes. I know it is strong. When I write, I write for hours. It’s hard to stop. When I’m not writing, I’m longing to be back at it.’  Michelle on her inspiration for writing at Dressed to Read

‘In writing these books, it was important to stay true to my father’s family and his journey, while giving the reader a sense of the time and place and the true historic significance of what took place, impacting on the futures of hundreds of thousands of people. I needed to be sensitive to them and their experiences.’  Michelle on what she found challenging about writing Port of No Return and Wanderers No More at Maiden of the Pages

Port of No ReturnAbout the Book

What can you do when you have nowhere left to call home?

Contessa and Ettore Saforo awake to a normal day in war-stricken, occupied Italy. By the end of the day, their house is in ruins and they must seek shelter and protection wherever they can. But the turbulent politics of 1944 refuses to let them be.

As Tito and his Yugoslav Army threaten their German-held town of Fiume, Ettore finds himself running for his life, knowing that neither side is forgiving of those who have assisted the enemy. His wife and children must also flee the meagre life their town can offer, searching for a better life as displaced persons.

Ettore and Contessa’s battle to find each other, and the struggle of their family and friends to rebuild their lives in the aftermath of a devastating war, provide a rich and varied account of Italian migration to Australia after World War II.

Format: ebook, paperback (244 pp.) Publisher: Odyssey Books
Published: 31st July 2015                     Genre:  Historical Fiction

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 Port of No Return on Goodreads

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Michelle SaftichAbout the Author

Michelle Saftich is a first time author who resides in Brisbane, Australia, with her husband and two children. She holds a Bachelor of Business/Communications Degree, majoring in journalism, from the Queensland University of Technology (QUT). For the past twenty years, she has worked in communications, including print journalism, sub-editing, communications management and media relations. In 1999, she was named National Winner for Best News Story in the ASNA (Australian Suburban Newspaper Awards). Born and raised in Brisbane, she spent ten years living in Sydney; and two years in Osaka, Japan, where she taught English.

Connect with Michelle

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Blog Tour/Guest Post: Tapestry of War by Jane MacKenzie

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I’m delighted to be hosting today’s stop on the blog tour for Jane MacKenzie’s wonderful historical novel, Tapestry of War.  Described as a perfect read for fans of Victoria Hislop and Santa Montefiore – and don’t those two authors know how to bring the past thrillingly to life? – Tapestry of War is inspired by the author’s own family history.  During World War 2, Jane’s father-in-law disguised himself to rescue Allied servicemen in the Greek islands, and met his future wife in Alexandria.

I have a fascinating guest post from Jane in which she shares her thoughts on writing a book set in a place you’re familiar with, as indeed she is with the Scottish Highlands.

The tour schedule at the bottom of this post shows the other great book bloggers taking part in the tour where you will find reviews, interviews and book extracts.

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tapestry of warAbout the Book

Amidst the horrors of the Second World War, love and friendship bring two strangers together across conflict-ravaged continents.

In Alexandria, Fran finds her life turned upside down as Rommel’s forces advance on the idyllic shores of Egypt. In place of the luxury and stability that she is used to, she finds herself having to deal with loss, heartache and political uncertainty.

Meanwhile, on the Firth of Clyde, Catriona works day in, day out nursing injured servicemen. As the war rages on, the two women’s lives become entwined – bringing love and friendship to both.

Format: ebook, Paperback (320 pp.) Publisher: Allison and Busby
Published: 19th April 2018                  Genre: Historical Fiction

Purchase Links*
Publisher ǀ 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 Tapestry of War on Goodreads

Guest Post: ‘Setting Books Somewhere You’re Familiar With’ by Jane MacKenzie, author of Tapestry of War

It can be funny writing about a place you know from the outside in, that you feel and understand intuitively. It is in a way a gift, since you don’t have to fret over research and getting your facts right. But it brings its own difficulties too.

Tapestry of War is set in Egypt and in Scotland, and of course Scotland is my home. I live in the Highlands, and the whole way of life I describe in the book is one I am immersed in, bathed in, raised my children in. But then, when you come to write that down, you realise you have to take yourself out of it a little in order to find the words, and to describe what is so familiar.

It helps that it is so beautiful, and that we live so close to the forces of nature. You only have to stop and remember a wild night in December, the bitter winds of January, or a long, incredibly peaceful evening in summer. And once you have really embedded yourself in that act of remembrance then you can conjure up the little details, the birds that you see, the smells, how the hills look, the changing colours of the sea, and the description of them flows.

It helped that I was setting the book in the 1940s, during World War Two, because I’m a spectator of that era. But even then, the true Highland culture and social values haven’t changed that much. There are still women just like Aunt Sheila keeping their families together, baking, mending, visiting their neighbours, running village events. It’s a traditional place, is rural Scotland. In my own village of Plockton it can take half an hour to walk to our little shop, because you have to stop and talk to so many people on the way, check on someone who has been unwell, drop some soup into an elderly relative. I really wanted to evoke that, and I hope I’ve succeeded in passing on some of my love for my home country.

In writing about Egypt it was very different. I know Egypt, and have visited Alexandria, but it has changed so definitively since the war years that I relied much more on historical accounts, old pictures, some wonderful memoirs from the time. I do know what the elderly men look like as they sit over their little burners making tea in the streets, and I know how the heat smells, and how the sun rises over Alexandria harbour. But I can be freer in my descriptions of Egypt. I can imagine it and make it my own with much greater abandon.

Isn’t it strange that your own home, the place you live and breathe, should often be harder to write about? It is lovely, though, when your own people read your work and say ‘Yes, that’s it, you’ve captured it. That’s who we are.’               © Jane MacKenzie

Jane MacKenzieAbout the Author

Jane MacKenzie has spent much of her adult life travelling the world, teaching English and French everywhere from the Gambia to Papua New Guinea to Bahrain, and recently working for two years at CERN in Geneva. She now splits her time between her self-built house in Collioure, France, and the Highlands of Scotland, where she has made her family home. She is the author of the best-selling Daughters of Catalonia.

Connect with Jane

Website  ǀ  Facebook  ǀ  Twitter  ǀ  Goodreads

Tapestry of War Tour Schedule