Reader, meet Writer; Writer meet Reader

June 26, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 6 Comments

When my book, Our Endless Numbered Days was published I didn’t think I was going to enjoy getting out there and talking to strangers. It was a frightening thought – having to answer questions, explain why I had made a character do something unpalatable, justify what I had written. The first event I attended as an author was a literature festival and I was terrified at the idea of even getting on stage. But when it was over I was pleased I had managed to talk about my book to an audience who stared back at me with what at least looked like interest. But it was the opportunity I was given to meet these people after the event that I discovered I enjoyed the most. They seemed so excited to be able to talk to an author and I too was excited to meet actual readers.

I’ve since realised that more than anything book related I’ve attended so far, I enjoy interacting with people who like reading. And the best events are book clubs.

As a writer it’s so energising to meet, talk, Skype or email with people who ‘get’ your book; to debate the real nitty-gritty detail, to discuss the breadcrumb trails I left and to hear who found them and who didn’t.

And for the readers, they get to hear the story behind the story, they get answers to all those questions that other book clubs wonder about: why did the author end it that way? Why did she include that character? Or even, I wonder what her writing process is?

“Having Claire’s answers to our questions was a real game changer,” says Dawn Landau, who is a member of a book club based in Winchester Book Club Bellingham, in the Pacific Northwest of America. “It was exciting to have concrete answers to things we had wondered about as we read the book. Claire gave us insights that really helped us flesh out questions we’d had when reading. Having Claire’s responses to our questions helped us all feel much more connected to the story and its characters. A few of us said we were tempted to read it again, now knowing some of these details.”

Of course, nothing beats going to a book club meeting in person, but since I live in England and many of my readers are in the US, Skype is a good alternative. And if the time difference is too much to deal with I’m happy to answer questions by email.

“Initially, when I contacted Claire, we discussed doing a Skype meet and greet with her,” says Dawn. “However, it quickly became clear that with the enormous time difference (we always meet in the evening, as several book club members work full time), this would be impossible, and Claire offered to answer questions by email instead. Admittedly, our group is not the most organised – our focus is on fun, with books as the thing that brings us together – so we didn’t get the questions to Claire until right before our meeting, but she still answered them all.”

Naturally, not everyone is going to like every book. And of course I’ve come across readers who didn’t get on with Our Endless Numbered Days, but if they can express in a constructive way what didn’t work for them, I’m still interested. It might even spark a bit of debate. Sylvia Conway-Jones is a member of a book club in Hampshire that I visited recently: “As a group we differed in which aspects touched us and Claire was extremely gracious in allowing us our individual interpretations and Winchester book club 2 opinions.”

And it’s not just the story that can be a source of discussion: “Finding out about the writing and publishing process was fascinating and an added bonus,” says Syliva.

Whether the meeting happens face to face, via Skype or email, a little organisation will help it run smoothly: someone acting as the host (especially important if it is a Skype call or via email); some kind of structure to the evening rather than a free-for-all with questions; and since I won’t be expecting payment, it’s really appreciated if all the members leave a review on Amazon or another review site.

If you’re in a book club you’ve got nothing to lose by contacting an author and seeing whether they’ll be interested in answering some questions. Chances are they’ll be just as excited to meet you, as you will be to meet them.

If your book club is reading Our Endless Numbered Days and would like me to be involved, get in touch.

(Originally posted on the Tin House blog.)

The Island: Giving Your Characters a Hard Time

June 8, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 9 Comments

I’ve recently been completely hooked on the Channel 4 television series, The Island, where the adventurer, Bear Grylls drops one group of men and another of women on uninhabited Pacific islands and leaves them to fend for themselves for six weeks. How will they boil the water they find, what will they use to hack through the jungle, what are the essential tools that the groups couldn’t survive without? It’s had me shouting at the TV, ‘bring in the nets or the fish will rot!’ and, ‘don’t lie on the beach, go and get the water!’. It’s pretty compulsive viewing, and even more interesting for me in that I had to make some similar decisions for the characters in my novel, Our Endless Numbered Days.

Here’s a few of them.

Water: Peggy and James live for nine years in a remote European forest. James tells Peggy that the rest of world beyond what she can see has disappeared. But luckily one of their boundaries is a river; easy access to water you might think. I considered carefully about how many buckets they should have: too few and they would spend all their time going back and forth to the river; too many and it wouldn’t be enough of a challenge. With three they are able to have one tied by the river, and two to carry the water. (Later, even one of these is lost.) And to make it harder, the closest access point is a high ledge, so that buckets have to be lowered and lifted, and then carried up to the cabin.

Food: I needed my characters to be able to get through the severe winters and to find enough food, but novels (and reality TV programmes) are all about tension, so I didn’t want to make life too cosy. I wrote them an axe, a knife and a gun. And then I took the gun away (you can do that if you’re a writer.) I think I was quite generous – I gave them a bag of rice to get started, a fishing rod (Bear’s islanders get a few fish-hooks) and some seeds for when the spring comes. But then, since I also controlled the travel arrangements and the weather, I had them arrive at the cabin in late summer, and made their first winter almost impossible. Their food sources – the berries, mushrooms, squirrels, rabbits and fish – disappear. I let them have a month or so of preparations before the really bad weather hit, so they were able to chop some wood and dry some meat. But then, half way through that first winter I have James realise he has miscalculated the amount of food they will need, and they face starvation.

Shelter and warmth: Peggy and James live in a one-room cabin. They might not have to cope with sand flies and scorpions but they do need to keep warm. There is a stove which they use for cooking and for heat, but no blankets. Conveniently you could say, my characters arrive fully dressed in dungarees, coats and shoes, but I couldn’t let them have it quite that easy, so Peggy loses a shoe before she even makes it to the cabin. I love that when I’m writing, the consequences of one scene can be huge. What do you do if you only have three pieces of footwear between two people? Shoes can be shared, but then only one person at a time can go outside in winter, which makes it very difficult to catch large animals, which means you have to hunt or forage every day, and so getting enough food is a continual challenge.

Luxuries: I’m not sure Bear Grylls’ men and women would say they had anything that could count as a luxury, but although they weren’t able to take anything with them, they were able to forage. (Anyone interested in a used toothbrush washed up by the Pacific?) James takes toothpaste with them, but a couple of tubes were never going to last nine years (and the consequences of a lack of dental hygiene was paid for years later). James makes Peggy a comb (but eventually her hair has to be shaved off). Their candles are quickly used up (no head torches for Peggy and James) and so they begin to live their lives by the rising and the setting of the sun.

These are just a few of the decisions I made about how make the lives of my ‘islanders’ difficult; there were hundreds more.

If you’re a writer, how have you made the lives of your characters difficult, or if you’re a reader or viewer, what survival books or television shows have had you shouting at the page or screen? I’d love to know.

A version of this article was first published by Isabel Costello on her website. Image courtesy of Channel 4.

Writing Dual Narratives

May 28, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 43 Comments

Gone Girl, How to be Both, Instructions for a Heatwave: everyone’s at it – using dual or multiple narratives to interweave two or more stories often from different time periods. Less common are books that use a dual narrative from the point of view of the same character.

In my novel Our Endless Numbered Days, the narrator, Peggy Hillcoat, starts telling her story in her present day – 1985 – and then goes back to 1976 to when she was eight. The chapters mostly alternate between one November day in 1985 and the time period from 1976 onwards, until the end of the novel when the two strands collide.

When I started writing I wasn’t looking for a clever structure, I didn’t even realise that the one I used wasn’t that common, I simply wanted to tell the story in the best way possible and like many first-time novelists I muddled my way through. I wrote each chapter consecutively, flipping back and forth between the years, but when I had finished the first draft, I wasn’t sure the 1985, single-day narrative hung together, so I lifted all of those chapters out and rewrote them. Then I put them back in, and revised them in-situ ensuring that they gave hints about what might be about to happen in the other time period, whilst not giving anything away. It was a challenge!

If you’re writing a dual or multiple narrative novel, here are some things you might want to think about:

Make each strand as interesting as the other(s). You don’t want readers to be skimming through one narrative because they enjoy the others more. Make sure they have emotional investment in all stories.

Break the action of each narrative at a critical point. The dual narrative structure is a perfect way to create cliff-hangers that will keep your readers turning pages. A cliff-hanger doesn’t always have to be something astounding; just make sure you leave a question in the readers’ minds.

Use each narrative to shine a light on the other. Have fun with your dual narratives – use them to bring out themes, to foreshadow events, to give hints and clues and as I said above, to set up questions. For example in my first chapter, in 1985, Peggy looks at a photograph of her father sitting at her mother’s piano: ‘I was surprised to see him sitting there. I have no recollection of him ever sitting at the piano or playing it, although of course, it was my father who taught me to play.’ How her father could have taught her to play without her recalling him doing it, hopefully sets up a question which is answered in the second narrative strand.

Find the way of writing that works for you. Some writers create the strands separately and then bring them together, some, as I did, write them at the same time. It doesn’t matter which way you do it, but when you do bring them together you have to work hard on the interweaving.

Make clear jumps between narratives. In Our Endless Numbered Days the jumps between the two strands are by chapter. This is probably the clearest way to sign-post to the reader that they are moving from one narrative to another, but even so, I decided to put a date and location at the heading of each 1985 chapter, so the reader was never lost. It can be done more subtly than this, and should be if the jumps are within chapters. You can use character, location, dialogue, or anything that will help the reader know which narrative they are moving into. This is especially important for the first jump you write.

Make a connection between the two narratives. The connection could be very subtle – a theme, an emotion, an object – or as in my case, very obvious – the narrator. But you do need to reveal a connection at some point, otherwise you might as well write two novels.

Don’t be too tricksy. Don’t decide on a dual narrative structure because you want your novel to be interesting or challenging; it has to be right for the story. Bear in mind that in a dual narrative you will probably have to withhold information at some point and you don’t want this to appear forced.

Remember to deal with aging. If your dual narratives use some of the same characters, you will have to make them age believably. My two strands are both about Peggy. She needed to have the same fundamental characteristics, but in one strand she is seventeen, whilst in the other we first meet her age eight. Similarly, you need to consider your characters’ physical characteristics and how those will change over time.

Remember the character arc. Writing theory often talks about the character arc – how will characters change over the course of the story; what will they learn? With a dual narrative from a single character’s point of view, this can be harder to manage. In the case of Our Endless Numbered Days, Peggy’s main arc happens in the 1976 and onwards chapters. But she also needs to change during the single day in 1985 in a way which matches the other character arc.

It’s a lot to think about, but the most important thing is, if you enjoy writing both narratives then most likely your readers will enjoy them too.

(This article was originally published on Writers & Artists.)

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Our Endless Numbered Days has recently been shortlisted for The Desmond Elliott Prize for debut fiction. The Reading Agency is holding an unofficial vote for which book readers think should win. Click here to vote for your favourite.

Our Endless Numbered Days shortlisted for book prize

May 16, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 26 Comments

I’m absolutely thrilled that my book, Our Endless Numbered Days has been shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize for debut novels. The shortlist of three (also including A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray, and Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey) was decided from a longlist of ten books. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in London on 1st July.

You can read more about the shortlist on the BBC website.

Flash Fiction: A Bucket of Ice

May 7, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 52 Comments

This week for Friday Fictioneers (the 100-word flash fiction group) we have something slightly different. Because our trusty leader, Rochelle, is busy getting her books published, we’re revisiting a photo prompt from July 2012. Then I was right in the middle of writing my first novel without any idea that it would one day actually be published by Penguin and several other publishers around the world. I used many of these picture prompts to write scenes, some of which actually made it in (although slightly altered) and this was one of them.

So firstly, here is the original flash fiction piece I wrote inspired by the photo above in July 2012:

“A winter like this I have not known since I was a child in Germany,” said my mother, her mouth still full of z’s and v’s even after all these years. She shivered and took her gin and tonic back inside.

Oskar rapped his knuckles on the thick ice that had risen like a soufflé out of the garden bucket. Its tap dripped an icicle.

“Would you like some ice with that madam?” he laughed. Oskar turned the handle, twisting hard; his mouth twisting too with the effort. The tap snapped off.

I cried – for the cold, for the homesickness, but mostly for the waste of a bucket.

And here is the scene that made it into the book:

Oskar rapped his knuckles on the thick ice which had risen like a soufflé out of a bucket hanging on a nail beside the back door. I recognized it; it was the bucket my father and I had used, with a tap attached to the bottom so we could brush our teeth with running water. In the frozen garden the tap dripped an icicle.

‘Would madam like something to drink?’ Oskar laughed and turned the handle, twisting it hard; his mouth twisting too, with the effort. The tap snapped off. And for the first time since I had come home I cried – for the music, for Reuben, but most of all for the waste of bucket.

To write your own 100-word piece click here, or to read other people’s click here. The picture this week was supplied by Madison Woods.

And I’m excited to let you know that Our Endless Numbered Days has just been released as audio book. You can buy it at Audible.com or Audible.co.uk

Novel Naming*

May 5, 2015August 24, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 41 Comments

I’m currently revising my second novel. Like my first, it’s had many working titles, but finding one that will stick seems to be harder this time around. I’m a bit of a title collector** and keep a running list on my laptop of existing book titles I like, alongside a constantly shifting list of possible titles for what I’m writing.

The title of my first book, Our Endless Numbered Days came from an album by Iron & Wine. I listened continually to his music as I wrote – all the 100 songs I own – and the title slipped into my subconscious one day and was perfect. I like the way it rolls off the tongue in its lovely oxymoronic way. I was very lucky because the title I chose has stayed with the book for the English speaking countries it has been published in.

According Juliet Annan, my Editor at Fig Tree (Penguin) about 60% of her books keep the title they are submitted with. But of course, even these might not be the author’s choice – sometimes agents are unhappy with the original title and the name gets changed even before the manuscript reaches the publisher.

Jo Bloom, author of Ridley Road had The Meetings as the original title of her novel: “At my initial meeting with my agent before I signed with her, she talked through what changes she felt the manuscript needed. She also said she didn’t think the title worked. I wasn’t welded to it so I agreed to change it but didn’t come up with another until just before submission to publishers. I had a long list of terrible, potential titles and it came out of that. It was a collaborative decision and a good one. It works on lots of levels.”

The thing that really does amaze me is when writers say their title came before the story or the characters. How wonderful to be able to create something as big and complex as a novel from a few words, and then be able to keep them right through to publication. Iona Grey, author of the recently published Letters to the Lost, says, “My title was actually the first thing I came up with and sparked the idea for the book, which was written around it. Luckily my agent and publisher liked it and didn’t want to change it, so we were all in happy agreement.”

If a writer loves the title they’ve come up with and thinks it’s perfect, I imagine it can be very hard if their publisher wants the title to be changed. Writers can and should push back of course, and as Juliet Annan says, publishers and writers have to agree on the final title, it’s no good if a writer is unhappy with the publisher’s idea. But it also has to be right: “The title of a book is incredibly important,” she says. “It’s a promise — it’s got to entice and intrigue. Title, cover image, copy — those are the three things that start the ball rolling with our sales department and then reviewers, the media and booksellers. And they’re the things a buyer looks at whether they are shopping in a bookshop or online. I’m not shy of asking writers to change the title if I think their original one doesn’t work. It’s the publisher’s job to be opportunistic in the best possible way, and getting the title right is part of that.”

As for my second book, I’m not sure yet which category it will fit into, perhaps it will be one of the few delivered without a name at all; although in between edits you’ll still find me fiddling with those lists.

* I can’t tell you how long it took me to come up with the title of this blog post. (Okay – not very long)

** Here are some titles I love of existing books (I’m not brave enough to put up the list of my working titles). I would love to know what your favourites are.

What happened to Sophie Wilder
Silence of the Lambs
The Grapes of Wrath
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Spy who came in from the Cold
The Day I Sat On the Sun Deck with Jesus and a Wind Came Up and Blew My Kimono Open and He Saw My Breasts.
By Grand Central Station I sat down and Wept
Waiting for Godot
The Catcher in the Rye
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone
Canada
What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil
The Deep End of the Ocean
Beasts of the Southern Wild
In the Sea there are Crocodiles
Started Early, Took My Dog
Legend of a Suicide
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
We were the Mulvaneys
Everything is illuminated
Behind the scenes at the museum
All our spoons come from Woolworths
Who was changed and who was dead
Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow
A short walk in the Hindu Kush
Love in a Cold Climate
Love in the Time of Cholera

Our Endless Numbered Days is longlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize

April 2, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 32 Comments

I’m absolutely delighted to let you know that Our Endless Numbered Days has been longlisted in the Desmond Elliot Prize. This prestigious prize is awarded annually to a UK debut novel. My book is up against some stiff competition though, including Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey and The miniaturist by Jessie Burton. The shortlist is announced in May.

More information about the prize and the other longlisted novels can be found here.

Our Endless Numbered Days is Officially published in the USA today

March 17, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 29 Comments

Today, 17th March 2015, Our Endless Numbered Days is officially published in the USA by Tin House.

Masie, Nanci, Meg and the rest of the team have been working so hard to get my novel noticed, and they’ve done a fantastic job so far:

“…the book is almost impossible to put down. Fuller weaves a hypnotic intensity of detail into her narrative that gives every lie the feel of truth…” The Chicago Tribune

“Fuller’s compelling coming-of-age story, narrated from the perspective of Peggy’s return to civilization, is delivered in translucent prose.” KIRKUS reviews

“The novel’s shocking, satisfying ending points to the persistence of the domestic plot in fairy tales, even as it’s flipped.” Cleaver Magazine

And, it’s been chosen as Powell’s Indiespensible book for March, which means it has had a limited edition cover made.

Our Endless Numbered Days is available from most independent bookstores, from Barnes & Noble, and Amazon.

One last thing – if you do buy it and read it, thank you! And if you like it make sure you come back and tell me, tell your friends, write a review, or just generally shout it from the rooftops. Apparently nothing sells books like word-of-mouth.

Claire

A chat between two writers

March 3, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 18 Comments

Last week I had an online chat with Helena Hann-Basquiat a Canadian writer, about our recent and forthcoming publications.

My novel Our Endless Numbered Days, has already received positive reviews in the national press, and Helena currently has a Pubslush campaign taking pre-orders for Memoirs of a Dilettante Volume Two, and is also publishing a Shakespearean-style play, a tragi-comedy called Penelope, Countess of Arcadia.

Overheard over coffee at Helena’s…

I’ve just grabbed a coffee, are you sitting comfortably?

Yep!

Well, Claire, I guess to start off, I should say that I really only know you from Friday Fictioneers, but that I’ve already a respect for your writing. I can’t recall how long ago you announced that Our Endless Numbered Days was being published, but I recall being excited. How long a journey has this been for you?

The book sold in the UK and Canada nineteen months ago (July 2013) and to my US publisher I think it was in the November of that year – so it feels like ages! So you’re about to release volume two of Memoirs of a Dilettante, is that right? Can you tell me a bit about the project and volume one to start with.

Well, the strange thing is, I’m going completely against the advice of the person who started it all. A friend of mine urged me to start writing again, if only for myself, and so I began writing as Helena, both for anonymity reasons and to amuse myself and keep myself entertained. It was never meant for an audience, per se, but my vanity demanded it be read, and slowly I picked up readers. Volume One is a looser collection of stories and essays, mostly unconnected to each other, though there are some story arcs that last for a few chapters. It’s a fine first effort, I feel, but it was in no way as intentional as Volume Two.

Volume Two is, as strange as it sounds coming from me, who has maintained an enigmatic air, deeply personal — even more so than some of the stories in Volume One.

I was a little confused on your website as to who was the alter-ego and who was the real you…

And the confusion is deliberate I assure you. Only recently have I revealed my identity to the world, but I still maintain that there should be a disconnect between the writer and their work. The writing should speak for itself. Now, I’ve only had a chance to read your descriptions of Our Endless Numbered Days (haven’t got my hands on it yet!) but tell me if I’ve got the start of it, because even this captivates me. A man takes his daughter into the woods to protect her, and tries to convince her that the world outside of that forest has ended. Can you take it from there and tell me a bit more?

Hmm, not to protect her, but because of some particular family circumstances. And yes, he tells his daughter Peggy that the world beyond their little patch of land has disappeared, and because she’s only eight, she believes him. They live there for nine years, just about surviving, until Peggy makes it home. You know from the outset that she makes it home, but just not how… that’s the twist if you like. And for you – being such a private person, how was it making your writing public and getting such a following – you have 4000 ish followers on your blog don’t you?

Ah, so it’s not for protective reasons. Curious… As for making my writing public — it was a lot of fun, and sometimes a lot of heartache. All I really wanted to do was write, but it doesn’t work like that, and so I found myself socializing as Helena, and people took to her. The way you describe your story, I’m not sure what to make of it — is this something that’s going to be disturbing? Or is this something that’s going to be heartwarming? I guess I should ask who you think your audience is — what do they read?

It’s more disturbing than heartwarming. It’s set in 1976 up until 1985. People have compared the subject matter to Emma Donoghue’s Room (which I loved). Have you read that? About a girl abducted and kept in a cellar, but mine is outside in the woods. Can you give me some idea of your style of writing, or the content of some of the stories?

Ah, see, my other alter ego, Jessica B. Bell, writes all the disturbing stuff, and when I heard “man keeps daughter out in the woods for nine years” my mind went all sorts of dark places.

For Memoirs, stylistically, it began as a sort of “no holds barred” writing experiment, intentionally breaking a lot of writing rules and flaunting them.

Don’t use alliteration. Don’t use adverbs. Don’t talk to your audience.

Broken. Broken. Broken.

I took stories from my own life, dressed them up in flamboyant clothes, and sometimes, it was something as simple as a trip to McDonalds.

That sounds really interesting. We are told all sorts of rules as writers. I think you have to be quite courageous to break them. I have to admit that I’m not a big fan of adverbs, but I like it when authors talk to their audience.

I quite frequently break the fourth wall. In the play I also just finished writing — a Shakespearean mash up called Penelope, Countess of Arcadia — I actually included You (as in the audience) as a character, and use them a couple of times for interjections.

I grew up watching a lot of Looney Tunes, and I think that’s where a lot of my absurd humour comes from.

I like the idea of writing in the second person. Have you read ‘If on a Winters Night A Traveler’? The novel I’m writing now is half letters from a wife to her husband, so it has quite a big second person feel to it.

I can’t say I broke any literary rules with Our Endless Numbered Days. I just wanted to write a book about a subject that I might be interested in reading.

I’ve not read that, but I’ve toyed with that idea myself — I think it pretty much HAS to come in the form of letters, otherwise it comes off as pretentious. I used some of that technique in the meta-novel JESSICA.

I have to ask you — are you familiar with the Iron and Wine album by the same name – Our Endless Numbered Days?

Oh yes. That inspired the title. I love Iron and Wine and listened to all his music when I was writing. I acknowledge the debt in the book. What are your titles and how did you come up with them?

I once made up a word as a title – I love neologism, and in another life I probably would have made a good linguist. The day H.R. Giger (the Swiss artist famous for designing Ridley Scott’s Alien) died, I wrote a tale about a woman who gives birth to something macabre. I wanted the title to mean Strange Birth, but that was too transparent, so I created the word Paraxenogenesis from two Greek words, literally Strange and Birth.

Our Endless Numbered Days is out now — are you doing any book tours or signing appearances?

Good word! Actually it’s now in the UK and Canada, and 17th March in the USA. Tin House, my US publisher can’t bring me over from the UK as much as I’d love to go, but there are quite a few signings and readings booked in the UK already. How will you go about promoting Memoirs of a Dilettante Volume Two?

I’m promoting it via a Pubslush campaign right now, and with the funds raised from pre-orders, am planning on doing some advertising. Now that my identity is public, it kind of changes the game for me, and I’m a bit freer to do more personal things, like public appearances and such. I have got contacts with a lot of local book stores to set those kinds of things up.

And are you looking forward to those – public appearances?

After two years of hiding, it might be interesting to talk to people, but I’m so much of an introvert it makes me a bit nervous! How about you — is this something that excites you or do you just want to get back to writing?

That’s interesting, because your online personality comes across as so extrovert. I worked in marketing for a long time, so I’ve found that I’m really happy to get out there and speak to readers. It is so amazing when you speak to someone who’s read your book who isn’t in part of the publishing team or a relative. I love that side of things, but that has surprised me. I wouldn’t call myself an extrovert.

That’s why Helena’s so fun… I get to channel my inner extrovert! Well, thank you so much for talking to me today! I can’t wait to get my hands on the book!

It’s been really nice talking to you too.

Claire Fuller is a writer of flash fiction, short stories and novels. Her debut novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, is already available in the UK (Fig Tree / Penguin) and Canada (House of Anansi), and will be published in the USA (Tin House) on 17th March. It is the story of Peggy Hillcoat, who is taken to the forest by her father, and not seen again for nine years. Visit Claire’s website (www.clairefuller.co.uk) or follow her on Twitter (@ClaireFuller2)

Order Our Endless Numbered Days on AMAZON UK

Order Our Endless Numbered Days on AMAZON CANADA

Pre-Order Our Endless Numbered Days on AMAZON US

The enigmatic Helena Hann-Basquiat dabbles in whatever she can get her hands into just to say that she has.

Some people attribute the invention of the Ampersand to her, but she has never made that claim herself.

Last year, she published Memoirs of a Dilettante Volume One, and is about to release Volume Two, along with a Shakespearean style tragi-comedy, entitled Penelope, Countess of Arcadia.

Helena writes strange, dark fiction under the name Jessica B. Bell. VISCERA, a collection of strange tales, will be published by Sirens Call Publications later this year. Find more of her writing at http://www.helenahb.com or and http://www.whoisjessica.com Connect with her via Twitter @HHBasquiat , and keep up with her ever growing body of work at GOODREADS, or visit her AMAZON PAGE

BECOME A FAN at PUBSLUSH and pre-order Memoirs of a Dilettante Volume Two and Penelope, Countess of Arcadia

First Words

February 19, 2015 / Claire Fuller / 140 Comments

From The Finnish Museum of Photography http://www.flickr.com/photos/valokuvataiteenmuseo/

In a week (a week!) my novel, Our Endless Numbered Days, will be published in the UK. I don’t have the words to express how excited I am. Well, I do, but they are all adverbs and those aren’t allowed. To celebrate the fact that I only have seven days to wait to see my book out in the world, I’d like to invite all the lovely writers I know (and those I don’t) to share the first words of one of their books, or whatever they’re writing at the moment.

In the comments below please share the first couple of sentences of your writing – not too much, just give us a taster. Include a link to where we can buy your book or read more and tell us a tiny bit about it. And then, and this is the most important part, read at least two other writers’ first words, and click on their link or comment on their writing. And finally, share this post.

So, to start us off, here are mine from Our Endless Numbered Days. It can be pre-ordered from Waterstones or Amazon in UK, Amazon (USA), or Amazon (Canada)

This morning I found a black and white photograph of my father at the back of the bureau drawer. He didn’t look like a liar.

About Our Endless Numbered Days: In 1976, eight-year-old Peggy Hillcoat is taken by her father to a remote European forest. There, he tells her the rest of the world has disappeared. She isn’t seen again for another nine years.