Reluctant Rest, Reluctant Rescue

Book Events and Chicken Drama

Happy first Friday, gang!

I will not patronise you or waste your time - the plug is at the top this week, and the actual newsletter will trail behind. 

ONE MONTH TO PUBLICATION DAY!

You can pre-order the book here.

I AM DOING AN EVENT AND YOU CAN ATTEND IT WHEREVER YOU ARE

Look, you can register here.

That’s it, plug over. Other events will pop up on my socials - I’ll be doing things in Oxford and London and Beverley at least - so follow me @lucyayrton on insta to keep abreast (or reply to this email and tell me where you live, if you like). 

The month in reading (and watching and listening)

Last month I claimed I would read all my comparison titles, and in fact I did not do this. What I did instead is get my head turned by two books and run off with them. And I haven’t even finished either of them yet! I’m reading them in patches, because one is horror and a bit intense and I need breaks from it, so I’m pairing them, taking bites out of each. Does anyone else read like this? When I was interviewing on the course I teach, one candidate said they always had three books on the go - one for morning, afternoon, and evening, and I found this deeply charming. 

Do you know what? I’m not even going to read my comparison titles next month. I don’t need to yet, and I’m enjoying reading! What I’m going to do is read the three books I bought at the sublime Mr B’s Reading Emporium in Bath, all of them titles I’d never heard of that seem just perfect for me, recommended by the wonderful staff. Whatever! I can do what I want, and so can you! This month’s (very nearly finished) books were - 

Our Share of the Night by Mariana Enriquez - deliciously unsettling horror. I’ve been eagerly awaiting this since reading her short story collection, The Dangers Of Smoking in Bed. Told non-chronologically over a span of several decades, this is the story of a horrible cult and the horrible monster they worship, and it’s awful, and so, so beautifully written. I think it might actually be giving me nightmares. 

In The Shadow of the Wolf Queen by Kiran Millwood Hargrave - a lovely, immersive, thoughtful MG adventure to sink into. In an alternative version of the UK, there is magic in the ground and in the trees, and a young girl is going to save her sister, and I think the world as well, because something dark is brewing. Absolute catnip. 

The month in writing

This month I FINISHED A DRAFT of a new project, and then I went to Norfolk for a week to eat ice cream and chips with my husband and my parents and my child. And at the moment I’m not actively drafting anything. One book is with my editor and the next is with my agent and it’s nearly publication month and… I kind of feel like I should be working a bit harder than this? I’m still working - I’m teaching, and I’m writing content for a course I’m running next year, I’m doing tutoring and tutorials, but I don’t have the daily grind and release of a few hundred words to do. The feeling of running my creative brain out, like it’s a collie on the beach. It feels kind of free and light but also is making me a bit twitchy. I love that I have more creative energy, I have time to have ideas, but on the other hand, I like to go to bed tired, you know? I thought about getting into morning pages, but I decided to just sit with it. Edits back on the next novel soon so it’ll be a short season.

The month in life

The chickens are fighting. They’re vicious, you know? I had to put a wall up in the run, to keep the hurt one away from the others, but she jumped it to get back to them, which I guess says a lot about community. I built the wall back bigger, which is something a baddie would do, but she really does have to heal. I’m planning my book launch and I’m planning my child’s third birthday party and when we asked at nursery who we should invite, they said it was hard to say because she played with everyone. I wasn’t like that as a child, and I wish it for her. But as an adult, I have more friends then I have time to see, and that’s a blessing and a big one. It’s the season for big jumpers and pints of cider when it’s cold and dark outside. We’ve got a veg box again, and last night I made a squash and sprout tart for dinner and it was delicious. The toddler didn’t eat it but that’s fair enough I think. I’m going to pick her up early today and take her to the community cafe in the park because I’ve got time, I’ve got a little bit of ease. She’s three next month and spending time one on one with her is changing - it’s feeling less like childcare every month and more like just hanging out with my favourite person, but I’ve thought that so many times. THIS is the bit where it all gets easier. No, I was wrong, it’s THIS bit, THIS is the point you can start to relax. So maybe it’s not THE point, but it’s certainly A point. A point I can start to relax. 

Lots of love. Buy my book x