On Friday 28 April, the Teddington Waterstones Book Club will host an author event with Leonora Meriel. Leonora will speak about her debut novel The Woman Behind the Waterfall, and will answer questions from the group.
Location: Landmark Arts Center, Teddington, TW11 9NN
Price: £5 / £3.50 concessions
Date and Time: Friday 28 April at 1pm
There are thousands of book blogs on the internet, and the majority of them cover a specific theme, and have individual submission guidelines. Many of the older, more established book blogs have waiting lists of months to review books, and are monopolized by the marketing departments of the major publishers, who have recognized their value for some time.
So that leaves the hundreds of newer book blogs – again, each with their own submissions policy.
My first step into book blogging was to contact a range of blogs. After hours spent checking guidelines and finding correct contacts and making sure the genres were accepted, I wrote to a handful of book bloggers.
Result: zero.
Absolutely no answer from any of them.
And bear in mind I had only written to bloggers who liked my genre, accepted indie books and were asking for submissions.
So, I did some more research and came across an excellent website that puts writers in touch with book bloggers, and lets the book blogger come to the writer, instead of the writer to the book blogger.
The lovely Kate Tilton has been helping out writers for over 7 years as an author assistant and marketing specialist, and she has a service to offer your book for review to her extensive list of book bloggers.
When she sent out an e-mail to her bloggers, it included details of my book, and what I was prepared to offer blogs – a guest post, an interview, free books for a completion, or anything else I was willing to provide.
She warned me that for my genre, Literary Fiction, there might be a very low response.
I was happily surprised.
Over 20 bloggers were interested in either reviewing my work or featuring me on their book blog.
But – with any group of readers you will have those who love it and those who don’t. But my goal was to explore the world of book blogs, and I feel I’ve had a rewarding adventure there.
And as I’m wrapping up the final blog posts and competition winners, it’s now time for the next adventure – YouTube Book Vloggers. Stay tuned!
My favourite parts of Ukraine are the western and south western areas. The countryside is viscerally beautiful and stunningly lush and verdant. When I began writing my first novel, this was the natural place for me to set it – somewhere so little known and yet so rich in culture and beauty.
I tried in my novel to give a sense of the landscapes, but here are some photographs I took while travelling, which shows some of the reason I was so inspired. I hope you enjoy them.
This is a particularly lovely house in a village near Lviv – the largest city in the west of Ukraine.
The householders covered this house with straw for extra heat in the winter.
Here we are looking out of the straw-covered house to the garden and fields below.
This is a typical living room in a house. The walls are covered with carpets and there are sofa beds all around the edges. Several people might sleep in the room permanently, or the beds might be kept for guests.
This is a kitchen with an old fashioned tiled stove. They are incredibly warm and in the winter, the houses can be roasting hot.
This is a typical village lane. The photograph was taken in spring, which is when everything feels like it is growing before your eyes.
Many houses still rely on wells for water, and don’t have regular running water in the houses. This one was both functional and picturesque. The lid on it ensures the water stays clean for all the villagers.
This is a larger well, deeper in the countryside.
And here is the famous black soil, and the pre-Carpathians leading to the Carpathian Mountains beyond them.
I hope you agree it is a beautiful country. It is full of tales and unusual traditions and people who have extraordinary life stories to tell. I found it an inspiring place, and I plan to write more about it.
I’d love to hear from people reading this post. Can you think of any great things you know about Ukraine? Landscapes? Traditions? Literature? Do the photos of Ukraine remind you of other countries?
Thank you for reading!
The book club of The Honourable Society of Gray’s Inn, a beautiful legal hideaway located in London’s literary hub of Bloomsbury, chose The Woman Behind the Waterfall as their book for November.
There was a lively discussion of the novel with several members who had greatly enjoyed it, and several who hadn’t taken to the multiple narrators and unusual plot lines.
In all, it was a highly enjoyable evening, with a wide range of opinions and a firm divide between the literary fiction fans and the more traditional readers.
If you would like to ask Leonora to talk to your Book Club, please contact her on: leonora@leonorameriel.com
To download a pdf of the bookclub notes, click on the button below:
Download pdf of Book Notes
The Richmond Magazine has featured “The Woman Behind the Waterfall” in their Literary Locals feature, along with 5 other writers in the borough. Editor Fiona Adams calls the novel “a literary work of art”.