Book Bloggers and Reviewers: Julie Boon of Boon's Bookcase

Thank you to Ellie Holmes for another great interview in the latest RNA blog series.

I am delighted to welcome Julie Boon to the RNA Blog’s new monthly series where we speak to book bloggers and get an insight into their world. Welcome Julie, tell us a little bit about yourself and Boon’s Bookcase.

My name is Julie Boon and I have been blogging as Boon’s Bookcase for 2 years now. Reading is

certainly a passion of mine and since starting Boon’s Bookcase in February 2015. I can honestly say, I have never looked back! I have met some wonderful authors, publishers and bloggers (a few of these have become good friends). I love going to book events, parties and of course getting lots of wonderful books to read. The only thing that makes me sad, is the fact that I don’t think I will live long enough to read all the books I want to! Roll on retirement.

I have a wonderful husband, who I have been married to for 28 years (but have been together for 34). My Son Adam is 22 and has just graduated from university with a first class honours degree in Scenic Art. He is off to Australia in October for a big adventure (lucky him!). My daughter Emily is 17 and studying A levels in Music, Media and Art & Design – I have no idea where my kids get their artistic side from, it certainly isn’t me!! Oh and I also have a Jack Russell called Lola who is 8 years old and doesn’t like Postmen very much.

I work full time in a GP surgery as a Medical Secretary and have worked within the NHS for the past 15 years. Before that I worked near London Bridge for 18 years, so did my fair share of commuting.

I have always been a reader since I can remember and was always called a “bookworm” at school. The main genres I like to read are Women’s Fiction, Psychological Thrillers, Family/Wartime Sagas with a bit of History thrown in. Asking who is my favourite author is like asking which of my children I like the best, but a few of my favourites are:- Carole Matthews, Carol Rivers, Jane Costello, Kate Rhodes, Victoria Hislop – to name a few.

I would love you to take a look at Boon’s Bookcase, so why don’t you pop over and take a peek, you’ll be more than welcome.

What made you start to review/blog?

I had been reviewing books that I had read on Amazon and Goodreads for a while and when I joined Twitter I began asking publishers for books to review. The first question they would ask me was if I had a blog. I mentioned this to my son (who is a whizz with technology) and he said “Well why don’t you start one?” and the rest is history.

 What does your son think of the blog now?

He’s proud of me as I don't ask him questions anymore and he’s impressed with the amount of people who have viewed the blog.

 How has your blog developed over time?

I still feel like a bit of a newbie, even though on 2^nd February this year sees my 2 year blogaversary, but I have been overwhelmed by the number of people that have viewed my blog and the positive comments I have had. I am still experimenting with it and learning from it, but I think that is an on-going thing with bloggers in general to make their blog the best it can be.

 What are your review guidelines?

 I don’t have review guidelines as such, but going back to question 2, I am in the process of updating the blog with a review policy. I do answer all queries I get from authors/publishers and if I can’t review or don’t think a book is for me, I will tell them. I am having to be a bit more assertive nowadays and say no sometimes because I have a full time job, a family to look after and I’m also studying for a Business & Administration Level 3 Apprenticeship qualification through work.

What do you expect from a writer when they appear on your blog?

I have done a couple of Q&A’s with authors who have given some great answers and many blog tours (some with pieces from the author) and all in all, the authors have been very supportive and have re-tweeted my tweets and some have left lovely comments on the blog and on my Facebook page. It’s very helpful to get a good response from authors generally.

How important is social media to you and your blogging team?

Social media is crucial to my blog. I would never have had as many views without authors/publishers/bloggers re-tweeting my tweets and people visiting my Facebook page. I am hugely grateful to my friend Julie Williams, who guest reviews on my blog, especially now as I am studying, as she reads and reviews more than I do sometimes. I am so grateful when my tweets are re-tweeted, as this gets more people to look at the blog and that is so helpful in getting your name out there in the world of publishing.

What are your interests when not blogging?

When I am not blogging, my main interest is still reading. I am also passionate about music and musical theatre and when time and money allows, I love going to the theatre and concerts. I listen to anything from Barry Manilow to Take That. I also love nothing more than sitting at home with my family and Jack Russell Lola, watching rubbish TV with a glass or two of red wine.

We often ask agents and publishers what they consider to be the next “big thing” – what do you hope to see in 2017?

Personally, I would like to see more London/Family/Wartime sagas being published. They’re not everyone’s cup of tea but they really are my guilty pleasure. I come from South East London and now live on the outskirts of London in Kent and have a passion for reading books like this as I love a bit of London history as well.

Thank you so much to Ellie and everyone at the RNA for hosting me today. It’s been a pleasure to be a part of your blogger event and I hope you haven’t fallen asleep reading about me and Boon’s Bookcase.

Far from it, Julie! Thank you for giving us a glimpse into your world. I am impressed that you still find the time to review as much as you do, given the other commitments on your time. Congratulations on your two year blogaversary and good luck with the apprenticeship. Ellie x

Check out Julie’s blog and her social media links below.

Blog

Twitter: @JulieBoon

Facebook: Boon’s Bookcase

Ellie Holmes:

Ellie Holmes writes commercial women’s fiction with her heart in the town and her soul in the country. Ellie’s debut release was The Flower Seller. A member of the RNA and the Alliance of Independent Authors, Ellie’s latest book The Tregelian Hoard, set in Cornwall, is the first novella in her Jonquil Jones Mystery Series:

Links:

http://Author.to/EllieHolmes   

Website

Facebook

Thank you Julie and Ellie for a most informative blog interview.

If you are a book reviewer and would like to be interviewed for this popular series please contact the blog team on elaineeverest@aol.com

THE CHALLENGES OF WRITING IN ANOTHER SUB-GENRE

We welcome Henriette Gyland who tells about her move from contemporary fiction to historical and back...

Nobody decides to write a historical novel without having a love of history, and it was that love which prompted me to write The Highwayman’s Daughter, after having previously published two contemporary novels. Despite my enthusiasm, the shift from contemporary suspense to historical adventure was not without its fair share of challenges, mainly due to the amount of research involved. The things we take for granted in our contemporary society just… weren’t there.

There was no central heating, no supermarkets, no NHS, no flushing loos. You could’t pop out for a Starbucks, watch the game on TV, or travel from London to Bath in under two hours, and neither can your characters. Yet they still need warmth, food, sanitation, health care, entertainment etc. because people are essentially the same whatever world they inhabit.

 

First, the setting. Hounslow Heath, a dark and desolate place with the occasional gibbet displaying the decaying remains of some unfortunate person hanged at Tyburn, and notorious for the number of hold-ups taking place there. Yet this pot-holed track was the only road from London to fashionable Bath. Today very little is left of the Heath, with a large part of it buried underneath one of the Heathrow runways (hence the name).

The action takes place in 1768 in the town of Hounslow and surrounding area. Today Hounslow is a part of London, but in 1768 it was a village several miles out and the first coaching stop on the journey to Bath. I found myself poring over old maps, researching into road (and weather) conditions, finding out more about coaching inns and coach travel in general, as well as the town itself which at the height of the coaching era sometimes had more horses in it than people!

Then there were the buildings mentioned in the novel, one of which was Newgate Prison in London. The prison appears in a number of novels by Charles Dickens, but that was no real help because this was a rebuild of an older prison that burned down in 1780 during the Gordon Riots. I turned to Peter Ackroyd’s Biography of London for information on the earlier one.

For the clothes people wore, and how they lived, a trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum proved incredibly useful, and ditto several visits to John Soane’s house on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and the Museum of London. The food people ate was another real challenge, but I managed to track down some Georgian recipes and even try out one or two!

As for sanitation and the health of the population, one doesn’t have to travel very far back in time to discover how, more often than not, people died from complaints and illnesses which are curable today, at least in the western world. My son was astounded when I explained that the Spanish flu in 1918 claimed more lives than the whole of WW1 put together. (“You can die from flu?!”)

These were just some of the challenges involved.

Finally, regarding my career as an author, there is always a risk when switching from one genre to another that you may lose some of your readers, but I hope there’s enough mystery and suspense in The Highwayman’s Daughter to keep the fans interested. Sometimes you just have to go where the story takes you, and perhaps it will reassure those readers that I intend to continue to write both types of books!

The Highwayman's Daughter:

Is it a crime to steal a heart?

Hounslow, 1768. Jack Blythe, heir to the Earl of Lampton, is a man with great expectations. So when his carriage is held up by a masked woman, brandishing a pistol and dressed as a gentleman of the road, he wholly expects to have his purse stolen. And when he senses something strangely familiar about the lovely little bandit, Jack also expects to win his cousin’s wager by tracking her down first.

But as Jack and the highwaywoman enter into a swashbuckling game of cat and mouse, uncovering an intricate web of fiercely guarded family secrets, the last thing Jack expects to have stolen is his heart.

Henriette grew up in Denmark but moved to England after graduating from university. She has worked as a translator for 22 years and spent 3 of those translating novels for Mills & Boon.

 She started writing 15 years ago, just for fun, and her third novel, “The Highwayman’s Daughter”, a historical adventure, will be published by Choc Lit on the 7^th May 2014.

Twitter: @henrigyland

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/henriette.gyland

Website: http://henriettegyland.wordpress.com/

Thank you, Henriette, 

If you have an idea for a craft article or a book about to be released please contact us on elaineeverest@aol.com