It's my 50th Birthday so let's celebrate with books

They say age is just a number and it's certainly a mantra I believe in the older I have become. But for me birthdays are also bittersweet as they are a reminder that my mum is no longer around as she died suddenly 3 days before my 29th birthday. And now that I've reached the big 5-0 milestone, it's also a reminder as to how young my mum was as I've now only got 2 more birthdays to go until I'll be the age she was when she died.

Sadly with the way life has been for us all in the last 10 months, birthdays, weddings and any other form of celebrations have been rather pared back and mainly celebrated with those in our households or social bubbles so we've certainly got a lot of catching up to do when it is safe to meet up again. Personally I wouldn't have liked a big party or anything but would have liked to have been able to arrange to go out with friends for afternoon tea, instead I'll be celebrating my birthday home alone although will be catching up with friends online. 

But not only is it a special day for me, but it's also a big new books day in the publishing world as there are a LOT of new books out today. Below are just a small selection of some of the books that have caught my eye and made it onto my wishlist. Which ones will you be buying?

Festive Fun: My Fantasy Christmas Dinner Party

Tonight I'm kicking off what I'm hoping will be a fun feature that I will be hosting every night in the run up to Christmas.

The idea for this My Fantasy Christmas Dinner feature came about as over the last couple of years our company decided to have site based Christmas parties, with just a couple of free drinks and a buffet on offer, rather than the sit-down team meals that they used to pay for.  As I haven't had a traditional family Christmas for quite some time, I always love the chance to have a good catch up with friends over a meal and drinks especially if it's the chance for someone else to cook for me, so decided to host a virtual dinner party instead.

For this feature which I hope everyone will enjoy reading, I invited bloggers and authors to take part in hosting their own Fantasy Christmas Dinner party. My initial thoughts were for them to come up with 5 authors, dead or alive, who they would invite to the party and why they chose them. Then for an added challenge I suggested that maybe this could be expanded to include fictional characters and maybe plan the perfect menu or after dinner entertainment! So here's my feeble attempt as I'm definitely a reader and not a writer...

My first guest won't be a surprise for some of my friends as she wrote one of my all-time favourite books Little Women, Louisa May Alcott. I've lost count how many times I've read this book since my teens and my lovely blogger friend Linda Hill gifted me this gorgeous Macmillan Collector's Library edition for my birthday a couple of years ago.

The second guest is an author I would have loved to have met in person, but sadly I never got the chance to meet her although she was always so lovely to interact with on social media and had been a guest on the blog many times, Emma Hannigan. Emma was an inspirational women who sadly died last year after a long battle with cancer. Her final book The Gift of Friends is still sat in my TBR as I know that once I've read there will be no more new books coming from her but think I might bite the bullet and read it during my time off over Christmas.

Salisbury Literary Festival: Q&A with C.J. Tudor

There's just over a week to go until the first event starts at this year's Salisbury Literary Festival but I still have a couple more feature posts to share with you.  Today it's my absolute pleasure to welcome C.J. Tudor to the blog to talk about her debut novel The Chalk Man, which I'll be reviewing later, and her event with Stuart Turton.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your writing journey? 
Well, it’s been a long journey! I didn’t knuckle down to try and write properly until my mid-thirties. I suppose, like a lot of people, I thought I would write a book, immediately get an agent and publishing deal. Ten years, many books and rejections later, that’s exactly what happened!

If you had to give an elevator pitch for your debut novel The Chalk Man, what would it be? 
IT meets Stranger Things in a small English market town. Chills, twists and creepy chalk drawings.

The cover of The Chalk Man alone conjures up a creepy image of the story that is about to unfold, where did the inspiration come from? 
The inspiration came from a box of coloured chalks that a friend bought for my daughter’s second birthday. We spent the afternoon drawing stick figures all over the driveway. Then we went inside and forgot about them. Later that night, I opened the back door and I was confronted by all these weird chalk drawings. In the darkness, they suddenly looked incredibly sinister. I called out to my partner: ‘These chalk men look really creepy in the dark.’ 

It was only meant to be a game . . .

None of us ever agreed on the exact beginning.

Was it when we started drawing the chalk figures, or when they started to appear on their own?

Was it the terrible accident?

Or when they found the first body?

I’m looking forward to your panel at this year’s Salisbury Literary Festival, how did you feel to be invited to be part of the festival? 
Thank you. It felt brilliant!! Especially as it’s in my home town where I was born. It’s a massive honour!!

Have you been on a panel at a festival event before? 
Yes, I’ve done a few now and they’re always fun. I love talking about my book. After all, for ten years no one wanted to hear about my writing, so I’m making the most of it now!

What are you most looking forward to about your event?
Having a laugh with Stu Turton and listening to him talk because he is very talented and hugely funny. Also, talking about my book in my home town.