Today I am delighted to have an extract from Hannah Lynn's Fiona and the Whale.I also have a great International Giveaway for you. Details on how to enter are at the foot of this post. First, here's a little about the book:
With her personal life on the rocks, it's going to take a
whale sized miracle to keep her afloat.
Event planner Fiona Reeves did not have her husband's sudden
departure on her schedule. However, she’s certain that it's only a hiccup and
he'll be back in no time, begging for forgiveness. Fortunately there’s a
distraction of mammoth proportions swimming in the River Thames.
Absorbed by the story of Martha the sperm whale, Fiona
attempts to carry on life as usual as she awaits her husband's return. However,
nothing can prepare her for the dramatic turn of events that throws her life
into ever greater turmoil. The road ahead has many paths and for Fiona it’s
time to sink or swim.
Fiona and the Whale is a poignant and often hilarious
contemporary fiction novel. If you enjoy topical tales, second chances and a
little bit of romance, you'll love this new book from the Kindle Storyteller
Award Winner, Hannah Lynn.
Extract
Dear Reader,
I’m Fiona. Okay, technically that’s not true. The first full
sentence of the book and I start with an outright lie. You can read the cover,
my name’s not Fiona, it’s Hannah. Starting a novel with a lie is not a good
omen of things to come, but please bear with me. I’m ever so grateful you’re
here. Don’t let one little white lie put you off.
Here’s the thing. You’ve got the choice of millions of books
out there to read, and by some miraculous sequence of events, you found mine
and chose it. You picked Fiona and the Whale. Maybe you read one of my other
books before and liked the writing style. Maybe somebody recommended it to you,
(say thank you from me if they did) or maybe it was simply the quirky looking
cover that caught your attention and made you decide that on this particular
morning or afternoon or whatever time of day it is, that Fiona and the Whale is
the exact type of book you fancied reading. However you got here, I’m thrilled.
That you’re holding the book in your hand or have downloaded it to your
e-reader is more than I could have dreamed of. More than I dared hope. Now, I
know it’s rather cheeky and highly presumptuous to put yet more demands on your
time, but as the old saying goes, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. So, I have a
little favour to ask.
Now that you’ve made the decision to put this book firmly
into your collection, I was hoping you might read to the end of it. And I mean
all the way to the very end, not just to the bit where you know it’s going to
be happy ever after. Or not. I don’t want to give anything away. It’s
definitely not all happy ever after. Unless you want it to be. I digress.
Anyway, I was wondering if you would read to the bit where you learn about me.
To the Fiona side of me and the Hannah side of me. To the pages where you read
about more than the story, more than the characters, but instead learn about
how I came to write this. How I, in my own manner, became Fiona. I want you to
understand what my hopes are – beyond of course, you reading this, falling
madly in love with it, and telling all your friends that you just read the best
book ever about a whale that got stuck in the Thames.
I know what you’re thinking, well perhaps. You’re thinking
that there are a lot of variables that may decide whether or not you get to the
end of this book. Maybe you won’t like the writing style. I understand that. We
don’t all like the same books. It would be disappointing if we did. And there’s
no denying, I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself here for a book that, while
I’m pretty damn proud of, is no Dickens, no Atwood; it’s probably hovering
marginally above average in terms of syntactical lyricism if I’m honest. You
might find the prose too clunky, the dialogue too casual, or maybe it will be
my overly fond use of the olfactory sense that turns you off (what can I say,
I’m a nasal person). Not to mention how much I talk about food. That is
definitely me. I can’t help it. Give me a blank page and I start thinking about
food. Perhaps it stems from working in a sweet shop as a teenager. Me that is,
not Fiona.
Then again, perhaps it will be the romance element that
makes you close the book or switch off your Kindle part way through. I get that
too. Not that this is romantic romantic, but there’s definitely a bit of
kissing in there. And a bit of the other stuff too. I wish Fiona could have
been around to help with those bits. I’m not that type of writer. Not yet at
least. Anyway, kissing and romance and grand declarations of feelings might not
be your cup of tea.
You might be expecting more action and adventure. Maybe you
have got it into your head that Fiona is an Amazon goddess of a woman who is
somehow going to end up wrestling the whale in a dramatic fight for survival.
If that’s what you’re thinking, then I might as well just let you down now.
There will be no whale wrestling in this book I’m afraid. In fact, unless you
include her conscience, there’s no wrestling at all. Close the book. Go on, you
have my permission. I’m not going to let you wade on in the hope of blood and
guts and fights for survival. You’re not going to find them here.
Then of course there’s that never-ending issue that people
like you and me are so frequently faced with; too many books on your TBR pile.
You might intend to get to mine when you buy it, you most certainly think you
will, but every week there’s another purchase you simply have to make, another
bestseller you don’t want to miss out. Day after day, week after week, this
little novel of mine will get pushed further and further to the back of the
shelf, be it real or virtual. Then one day, you forget that you even bought it.
It will remain forever a member of the Books I Always Intend on Reading
collective. That’s fair enough. All those outcomes mentioned above are entirely
understandable. I wouldn’t hold it against you for one second if this happened
to you. It’s happened to us all.
But suppose you do get to the end. Suppose you find that you
start to lose yourself in the pages of the story. Suppose you start to imagine
yourself in Fiona’s position, grappling with all the things she has to grapple
with. Suppose you become Fiona, the way I became Fiona. Well if that does
happen, then like I said, please don’t stop on the last page of the story. Keep
going.
I guess with all that said and done, I should probably get
started with the book.
If this has whetted your appetite, here's where to find the book:
About the Author
Hannah Lynn is an award-winning novelist. Publishing her
first book, Amendments – a dark, dystopian speculative fiction novel, in 2015,
she has since gone on to write The Afterlife of Walter Augustus, a contemporary
fiction novel with a supernatural twist – which won the 2018 Kindle Storyteller
Award and the Gold Medal for Best Adult Fiction ebook at this year’s IPPY
Awards – and the delightfully funny and poignant Peas and Carrots series.
While she freely moves between genres, her novels are
recognisable for their character driven stories and wonderfully vivid description.
She is currently working on a YA Vampire series and a
reimaging of a classic Greek myth.
Born in 1984, Hannah grew up in the Cotswolds, UK. After
graduating from university, she spent ten years as a teacher of physics, first
in the UK and then around Asia. It was during this time, inspired by the
imaginations of the young people she taught, she began writing short stories
for children, and later adult fiction Now as a teacher, writer, wife and
mother, she is currently living in the Austrian Alps.
Books
Catch up on the rest of the tour!
Giveaway (International)
Whale Sized Giveaway
(Open Internationally) To enter, just follow the link below and good luck!
Prizes are
$25 Amazon Gift card
2 print copies of Fiona and the Whale
10 ebooks of Fiona
5 ebooks of The Afterlife of Water Augustus
5 ebooks, of Peas, Carrots and an Aston Martin
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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