Bob Fracklehurst - the man, the mystery, the meaning... by Louise Beech

I am delighted to be today's stop on the blog tour for The Lion Tamer Who Lost by Louise Beech. Louise talks about Bob Fracklehurst, a mysterious taxi driver who keeps appearing in her books! The Lion Tamer Who Lost is published by Orenda Books, and will be published in paperback on 20 September 2018.

Bob Fracklehurst - 
the man, the mystery, the meaning...

By Louise Beech

Anyone who has read any of my books will have noticed a certain taxi driver who pops up again and again. Bob Fracklehurst. (Even my spellchecker recognises him!) Technically, he wasn’t in my debut, How to be Brave, but there is an unnamed taxi driver who takes Natalie home from the hospital after she gets the terrible news about her daughter Rose; I like to think that was also no-nonsense, wears-his-heart-on-his-sleeve, Yorkshireman, Bob. He just hadn’t introduced himself to me yet.

In The Mountain in my Shoe, Bob was integral to Bernadette’s ability to volunteer with ten-year-old Conor, who was going through the care system and desperately needed her. Bob regularly took her across town to see the child, imparting frequent words of wisdom, very much there but never overbearing.

In Maria in the Moon, he again is present for a most important journey. He drops Catherine off on the Flood Crisis Christmas night out, and delivers her home again, this time with love interest, Christopher. This comes before a major scene. The words he says to Catherine in the taxi could very well have played a part in the moment – ‘You deserve whatever makes your heart whole.’

In my latest novel, The Lion Tamer Who Lost, our Bob is yet again the one who delivers two characters to one of their most important scenes; this time Ben and Andrew to the hospital. This book explores coincidences (for want of a better word – fate maybe?) and so Bob is witness again to a later reunion.

And in my next novel, Star Girl?, I’ll come to that soon …

Occasionally, I feel like Bob is some kind of a mystical figure. Like I didn’t even write him. He just … is. I don’t even have to force him or try and find somewhere to fit him into the novels. He naturally arrives. In his taxi. Music playing. Advice ready.

Anyone who follows me on social media will see that I’m sisters with a certain Bob Fracklehurst too. She’s actually called Grace. Some years ago, before my books, she came up with this quirky name to use on Facebook instead of her own. As a nurse, she had to be careful at times about what she posted, so it was easier to employ a pseudonym. I loved it. Knew I had to use it. So when the taxi arrived to pick Bernadette up at the beginning of The Mountain in my Shoe, Bob arrived too.

So will he appear next year in Star Girl? Oh yes. And he plays perhaps his biggest role so far. Are you ready for this? He gets out of the taxi. He briefly did in The Lion Tamer Who Lost, but this time it isn’t just his words that influence things. One of his actions plays a key role in changing the destiny of my main character, Stella. 

How he came to feature this time was quite profound – totally in keeping with the magical Bob. Last year I was in the car with the other Bob – sister Grace – and discussing with her whether he should return for Star Girl. I was about 30,000 words in and at a key scene. As we chatted back and forth, I glanced at the car in front of us. The registration plate said M900 BOB. Not only did it seem to say I had to conjure him up again, but also the year of the scene I was planning was 1990. 

Fate? Coincidence?

Nah. Just Bob.

And he may yet be back in book six that I’m 40,000 words into…

            

About Louise Beech

Louise has been writing since she could physically hold a pen. She was a columnist for the Hull Daily Mailfor ten years, and her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting twice for the Bridport Prize. Her debut novel, How to be Brave, was a number one bestseller on Kindle in the UK and Australia, and a GuardianReaders’ Pick in 2015. The Mountain in my Shoe longlisted for the Guardian’sNot The Booker Prize, andMaria in the Moon was a Must Read in Prima, Red and the Sunday Mirror.

Find Louise Beech on her website and on Twitter - @LouiseWriter

About The Lion Tamer Who Lost

The Lion Tamer Who Lost

By Louise Beech

Published by Orenda Books (E-book- available now; Paperback - 20 September 2018)

Publisher's description

Be careful what you wish for…

Long ago, Andrew made a childhood wish, and kept it in a silver box. When it finally comes true, he wishes it hadn't…

Long ago, Ben made a promise and he had a dream: to travel to Africa to volunteer at a lion reserve. When he finally makes it, it isn't for the reasons he imagined…

Ben and Andrew keep meeting in unexpected places, and the intense relationship that develops seems to be guided by fate. Or is it? 

What if the very thing that draws them together is tainted by past secrets that threaten everything?

A dark, consuming drama that shifts from Zimbabwe to England, and then back into the past, The Lion Tamer Who Lost is also a devastatingly beautiful love story … with a tragic heart. 

Here's a snippet of my review: 'I knew this book would be a tearjerker as soon as I immersed myself in Louise Beech's story, with her poetic words leaping off the page like little sparks of light. I had tissues, chocolate and counselling service on standby by the time I reached the end.'

Click here to read the whole review.

Follow the Blog Tour

Why the change of direction? by Jane Lythell

I'm delighted to welcome Jane Lythell to my blog today, to talk about why she has changed direction with her novels. Woman of the Hour was published by Head of Zeus in paperback on 3 November 2016. 

Why the change of direction with my novels?

By Jane Lythell

My first two novels The Lie of You and After the Storm are psychological thrillers. I have always been interested in what drives a person to do extreme things and in these two books I explored obsessive behaviour.

The Lie of You is about Heja who wants to destroy Kathy who is her work colleague. Kathy is a new mum and is struggling to cope on her return to work. She feels all her work errors are of her own making. Gradually her home life as well as her work life starts to fall apart. In fact she is being systematically undermined by Heja. Heja is a chilling and obsessive woman and yet by the end of the book the reader understands what drove her to act as she did and maybe even to feel some sympathy for her. We all have a dark side which we hide from the world. Sometimes something happens which tips a person into full blown obsession. 

My second novel After the Storm is set in Belize City and an island in the Caribbean Sea. There are four main characters: British couple Anna and Rob and an American couple Owen and Kim who have an old sailing boat they have been living on for three years. On their first night in Belize Anna and Rob meet Owen and Kim. Owen suggests they charter his boat and he will take them to the island of Roatan, where the diving is sensational. Anna is fearful but Rob persuades her it will be a great adventure. Unknown to them Kim is desperate to go home to Florida but Owen is determined to continue their life on the boat. Straightaway we have conflict of wishes between the four characters and a small boat is a very claustrophobic place when tensions start to build.

The two couples set off. It takes ten days to reach Roatan and that is a long time when one of the four, Owen, is hiding a terrible secret that is eating away at him. The strapline of the book is Some Secrets Destroy You. The storm of the title is both a weather storm and a psychological storm. By the end of the novel all four characters have been changed by spending this intense time together. The underlying theme is that you need to bring dark secrets out into the light of day in order for them to lose their destructive power.

I greatly enjoyed exploring the dark side of my characters in both these novels. With a thriller you set up a problem that has to be solved and you are guaranteed a strong forward momentum. Given this why did I decide to change direction with my third novel and move away from psychological thrillers to writing contemporary women’s fiction?

The reason was that I had a strong desire to write about the issues raised by a woman’s working life. So many novels depict women’s family and emotional lives. I’ve seen much less fiction about a woman struggling with the pressures of work. Yet that had been my life. A single working mother, trying to keep all the balls up in the air, feeling conflicted about competing pressures. I wanted to explore that.

I wanted to write a strong female character who also has her weaknesses and vulnerabilities. My heroine Liz Lyon is 41 years old and divorced. She is a respected TV producer and a guilty single mother. I wanted to show the whole woman: work-Liz, calm, controlled, soothing egos and managing a difficult boss and home-Liz who is far more emotional and reveals her real thoughts and feelings. At work Liz has to bite her tongue and censor what she says. At home she can let rip. And she fears that she is a better mother to her team than she is to her beloved daughter Flo.

The drama of the workplace offers such a rich vein to explore in fiction. So many issues and moral dilemmas are thrown up by this aspect of our lives. There are power struggles, intrigue and betrayals as well as moments of satisfaction and fulfilment.

I think it is important not to keep doing the same thing in your writing just because it worked the first time. I worked as a producer in television for 15 years and saw this happen too often where repetition of a successful format stifled creativity. You have to trust in your readers as why would they want the same thing over and over?

Finally, for me the most important thing is to create characters my readers believe in. It doesn't matter if they dislike a character or adore them. But it does matter if my readers don't believe in them.

I am currently writing a second book about Liz Lyon and StoryWorld TV station which will be published by Head of Zeus in August. 

About Jane Lythell

Jane Lythell lives in Brighton and is a sea-lover, star gazer, film and football fan. She worked as a television producer for fifteen years. She then moved to the British Film Institute as Deputy Director, a year as Chief Executive of BAFTA followed by seven years at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Her debut novel, The Lie of You was published in January 2014; her second After the Storm in January 2015 and her third novel Woman of the Hour in July 2016, all by Head of Zeus.

Find Jane on her Facebook page and follow her on Twitter - @janelythell

About Woman of the Hour

Woman of the Hour
By Jane Lythell
Published by Head of Zeus (Paperback - 3 November 2016)
ISBN: 978-1784971212

Publisher's description

Meet Liz Lyon: respected TV producer, stressed-out executive, guilty single mother.
StoryWorld is the nation's favourite morning show, and producer Liz Lyon wants to keep it that way. Her job is to turn real-life stories into thrilling TV – and keep a lid on the scandals and backbiting that happen off-stage.
But then simmering tensions erupt at the station, trapping Liz in a game of one-upmanship where she doesn't know the rules. As the power struggle intensifies, can Liz keep her cool and keep her job? Does she even want to?

Buy Woman of the Hour from Amazon UK here.

BEST OF CRIME with Marnie Riches

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

MARNIE RICHES

for her Born Bad blog tour

to share her BEST OF CRIME... 

... AUTHORS
My favourite author in the crime genre is Thomas Harris, simply because he wrote The Silence of the Lambs, which is crime fiction perfection. For years, I was also a Scandi Noir devotee and loved Stieg Larsson - not necessarily for the elegance of his prose, but for the complexity of his stories, his characters and wonderfully insightful depiction of Swedish life.

... FILMS/MOVIES
I can’t only choose one! Perhaps it marks me out as a 1990s throwback, but aside from the seminal The Silence of the Lambs with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, I’m a huge fan of Tarantino and particularly adored Pulp Fiction. Tarantino’s stories and scripts really are top class. I loved Guy Ritchie’s Lock Stock & Two Smoking Barrels. His story-telling and stylistic cinematography were great and I love the depiction of London – I was living in Surrey Quays in S.E. Docklands at the time! In Bruges was a darkly comic masterpiece. Nowadays, I think the Scandis do crime movies best. The Swedish big screen adaptations of Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy were cracking – Noomi Rapace had me transfixed. I loved Headhunters and loved, loved, loved Jackpot – both Jo Nesbo stories on the big screen. I like my crime with a little dark humour and those two films have them in spades. Some of the best crime drama of late has most definitely been on TV…

... TV DRAMAS
Well, Breaking Bad of course! Without doubt, the best TV drama since… The Wire, which was the best TV drama EVER. Every series of both Breaking Bad and The Wire were flawless. Just brilliant. There was humour, violence, ingenious intrigue... The dialogue crackled. The characters were breathtakingly well drawn. The sets were SO authentic. The acting was phenomenal. I don’t mind saying that Breaking Bad inspired some of The Girl Who Had No Fear. And obviously there are the Scandis – what’s not to love about The Bridge and The Killing (not the American version, of course, but the original Danish)? Well written, beautifully shot, perfectly acted. Oh, and FARGO!!! Fargo has been incredible – both seasons 1 and 2. Billy Bob Thornton as the nutter? And Kirsten Dunst? Ah, the surprises just kept coming. I loved it. And then, there was the first season of True Detective with Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. Bloody brilliant! Nothing on British TV has measured up to the US and Scandinavian offerings, I’m afraid. Not for me.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS
On screen, I absolutely love Hannibal Lecter, Walter White, Jules Winnfield and Stringer Bell. Who can argue with the performances of Anthony Hopkins, Bryan Cranston, Samuel L. Jackson and Idris Elba? So much of on-screen charisma is down to the actor, as much as the script. Omar from The Wire, played by Michael K. Williams, is one of the coolest characters on TV. I loved the romance and poignancy of Richard Harrow in Boardwalk Empire, played by the yummy Jack Huston. In print, Lecter (again), Graeme Cameron’s unnamed protagonist in Normal is highly entertaining. Peter Swanson’s Lily Kintner in A Kind Worth Killing is a dastardly cowbag!

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Obviously Paul van den Bergen is my favourite detective – I would say that! Clarice Starling is a standout investigator. I love McNulty, Bunk, Kima Greggs and Lester Freamon from The Wire. But I have also enjoyed the Franciscan Friar, William of Baskerville in Umberto Eco’s outstanding The Name of the Rose. If I’m honest, I usually like the bad guys rather more than the good guys. 

... MURDER WEAPONS
The Leopold’s Apple in Jo Nesbo’s The Leopard.

    

... DEATH SCENES
In print, the Snowman’s antics in Jo Nesbo’s most famous Harry Hole novel are pretty spectacularly gruesome. In the film, Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are in a car when Vega accidentally shoots his colleague, Marvin in the face. Very funny and surprising! There is also a scene in Breaking Bad where an informant – Tortuga – has been killed by the Cartel. From a distance, DEA detective, Hank sees a head moving slowly along the dusty horizon. It turns out to be Tortuga’s head on a plodding giant tortoise, emblazoned with the words, “Hola DEA”. I thought that was ingeniously cruel

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES
I skim the newspaper websites for real life crime inspiration. The Manchester Evening News is particularly useful for reports of crime that might inspire my new Manchester series. For crime reading recommendations, I like to see what Grab This Book, Northern Crime and Crime Fiction Lover have got on the boil and of course, the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) and its sister site, the Crime Readers Association (CRA) are chock full of the latest info about British crime writing. Author, Rebecca Bradley does a great blog about the craft of writing too and writing.ie is great for writing tips…

... WRITING TIPS
Plan your story in advance. If you can describe it in one or two sentences, you’re on to something that readers will want to pick up and read. If you can fit your story into a two page synopsis with a beginning, middle and an end, the writing will be that much easier. Keep your high points roughly at 25%, 50% and 75% of the way through. Keep your beginnings and endings sharp. Make every chapter count. Write every day, if you can. Edit ruthlessly. If you’re bored whilst reading it, cut it. If the passage doesn’t move the story forwards, cut it.

... WRITING SNACKS

Nuts. Gin. Dark chocolate. Wine.

About MARNIE RICHES

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in Manchester, aptly within sight of the dreaming spires of Strangeways prison. Able to speak five different languages, she gained a Masters degree in Modern & Medieval Dutch and German from Cambridge University. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist, a property developer and professional fundraiser. In her spare time, she likes to run, mainly to offset the wine and fine food she consumes with great enthusiasm.

Find Marnie Riches on her website, FB page and on Twitter - @Marnie_Riches

About BORN BAD

Publisher's description

The battle is on…

When gang leader Paddy O’Brien is stabbed in his brother’s famous nightclub, Manchester’s criminal underworld is shaken to the core. Tensions are running high, and as the body count begins to grow, the O’Brien family must face a tough decision – sell their side of the city to the infamous Boddlington gang or stick it out and risk losing their king.

But war comes easy to the bad boys, and they won’t go down without a fight. So begins a fierce battle for the South Side, with the leading Manchester gangsters taking the law into their own hands – but only the strongest will survive…

Born Bad was published by Avon on 9 March 2017.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

Follow the Blog Tour