Bestselling RS Downie reviews Peace Garden

I’ve been reading my own reviews again. Sorry, bad habit. But this one’s a good’n:

“There’s much to enjoy in Fiona Veitch Smith’s debut adult novel, The Peace Garden, where the hopes and fears of modern South Africa disrupt the
neatly-ordered flowerbeds of suburban Newcastle. Natalie Porter, twelve years old and insatiably curious, starts to uncover the stories that have shaped the adults around her, and progresses from catching a plant thief to beginning to understand some of the complexities of life and love in a post-Apartheid society. The novel ratchets up to thriller pace and with a nice twist on the traditional ‘follow-that-car’scene as Natalie, older but not much wiser, realises she may be the only person who can thwart a potential murderer.The Peace Garden is a cleverly-plotted novel with nice comic touches, and the author’s personal background produces both a convincing setting for the Newcastle characters, and some telling insights into South African life.”

RS Downie is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ruso series of Roman mysteries.

24/10/2011 0

Daughters of Avalon interview Fiona

I’ve just had the pleasure of being interviewed by the fabulous women’s fiction writer Tambra Kendall. She is also the publisher of Daughters of Avalon. I chatted to her about my writing in general and the inspiration for my latest book, The Peace Garden. Why not have a mosey over there now then have a look around her site – but be warned: some of the content is for adults only. Not the interview with me of course; the romantic element in The Peace Garden falls far short of Tambra’s own steamy erotic fiction 🙂

Her latest book is called Wicked Temptations and is available on Amazon Kindle.

22/10/2011 0

Fiona the heretic

I’ve just had the privilege of doing a guest blog on the International Christian Fiction Writers’ site. As it is 10 years this month since my first children’s book, Donovon’s Rainbow, came out, I have just been reminiscing about the first time a book shop refused to stock my work because they claimed it ‘distorted the Word of God’. So if you would like to read all about that, please drop by the ICFW site. And while you’re there have a browse through all the incredible fiction authors who are Christians and live all over the world.

19/10/2011 0

David and the Kingmaker is going to press

I’ve just finished proofreading the second picture book in my Young David Books series – David and the Kingmaker. My erstwhile illustrator Amy Barnes has done an amazing job with the illustrations and I can’t wait for it to get into the shops for Christmas.

To read more about David and the Kingmaker and the first book in the series, David and the Hairy Beast, head over to the Young Bible Heroes website. If you are a writer who wants to learn how to write picture books then I give a quick tutorial of this on my writing advice blog The Crafty Writer.

17/10/2011 0

Five Star review for The Peace Garden

Today I’m doing what everyone says you shouldn’t: reading my own reviews! The Peace Garden has had its first review on Amazon Kindle. And I’m relieved to see it’s a good one. The reviewer also manages to communicate the essence of the book far better than I could!

So, at the risk of blowing my own trumpet, here you go:

Suburbia meets apartheid,11 Oct 2011

Steve Pillinger

This is the fascinating tale of an uneasy mix between English suburban values and South African apartheid, which builds up to an unexpectedly explosive finale. The
unlikely starting-point of plants being stolen from the gardens of a quiet Newcastle street draws you in, as does the deftly-portrayed character of young Natalie Porter, a floating trophy of her parents’ ever-shifting
diplomatic/journalistic lifestyle, who finds a semblance of permanence staying with her Geordie grandmother – and leaps at the opportunity to emulate her fictional heroine, girl-detective Nancy Drew.

Natalie’s sleuthing efforts bring her into contact with an enigmatic black South African academic and his teenage son living at the end of the road. Everyone has them down as the plant thieves; and issues of racial prejudice are sensitively explored both in the English suburban context and, later, in South Africa itself.

Interwoven with the escalating mystery of the missing plants and the past lives of the possible perpetrators – which brings the reader unavoidably face-to-face with the tragic history of apartheid – is the delicately portrayed off-and-on romance that develops between young Natalie and Thabo, the bitter South African teenager now forced by circumstances to live with his father in Britain. Is he a `good guy’ or a `bad guy’? Natalie’s doubts on this score – and the reader’s – persist
almost to the last page.

This is a great story, with a compulsively page-turning conclusion, which also gives the reader an inside look at many of the conflicting issues of racial prejudice in its most notorious institutional expression – apartheid South Africa.

17/10/2011 0

Right seed, wrong soil … or vice versa!

I’ve been thinking lately about seed. As a writer covering many different media I always have a lot on the go. My story ideas are seeds and the soil they are planted in the medium of choice: a book, a film, an article, a play. I have a story idea at the moment about a boy from a council estate who dreams of going to space. But what is the right soil for this seed? Should it be a play (which I’m leaning towards) or a book or a film? Or perhaps, even a radio drama. I’m not sure.

seeds, grains, garlic — Image: Rosemary Ratcliff / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have another play on the go that I believe is right for the stage. But I’m struggling to find a producer to take it on. When my proposal is turned down does that mean it’s not good ‘seed’ or just that the soil I was trying to sow it in isn’t the right environment? Perhaps another theatre or another producer might give the play a better chance to grow.

The same principle can be applied to our lives in general. Do you have seed but don’t know where to sow it? Or have already sown it but are not seeing it grow? It could be a seed of relationship or career or finance. Are you investing time and energy into something that just isn’t bearing fruit? You need to ask yourself if it’s the right seed in the wrong soil … or vice versa! Or perhaps it is simply the wrong season.

Jesus, who is a great hero of mine, talks about seed and soil too. His story is found in the Parable of the Sower. There’s a lot to ponder there if you have some time to sow.

14/10/2011 1

Fiona Veitch Smith