This is an updated version of a previous blog post with an updated list of books.
I have read a lot of books in my life and some of them hold no memory. Yet some of them, years later, I can still recall some of the details, fragments or sometimes the whole premise. If you are an author, this is what you are aiming for, the hope your book will be read more than once or that the first impression your book makes lives on in the mind of the reader. That they will recommend it to anyone that asks and even those that don't. Some authors will be forever associated with one book, some for the vast range of their work. Some authors will be torn to shreds, some hailed as heroes and some will be forgotten their books assigned to dusty shelves or heaped in boxes sold in bulk. As writers we reach for the stars, many have said they wish they had written Harry Potter. I devoured the whole series in succession one summer waiting for the last book to come out and then devoured that. However, I do not share the wish that I had wrote them.
These are the recent books that will stay in my head
Haven Wakes - Fi Phillips
Beyond - Georgia Springate
Keepers - Cheryl Burman
Walking in the rain - Cheryl Burman
Guardians series (including Winged Lion) - Cheryl Burman
The Landlord of Hummingbird House - Jane Harvey
Unforgettable - Ruth Loten
41st Disaster - R S Jonesee
Tropical Kiss - R S Jonesee
Daylight Chasers - Rue Sparks
And Then She Fell - Dreena Collins
Things I did not do at the weekend - Dreena Collins
Adam and Grace Series - J C Paulson
Blood and Dust - J C Paulson
The bravery in writing, the reason we do it, is to share a little of who we are, to speak to those who would never hear us otherwise, to make a difference. I write under a pen name, but it wasn't a wish to hide and not own my voice. It was a wish to free it. The reality of our history is it cannot be erased. I reinvented myself to close the door on who I used to be, within my writing, in the hope of being taken seriously. I felt my history would hold me back from that, if only in my own mind.
Lily Lawson is no character, she is me, a real person, probably more so than I ever was. I use my real name as a student, a carer, with my family and interchangeably with my friends. I am often amused by the backwards and forwards shift in my identity. I can only put me on the page if me has another name that allows the full expression of who I am. I have been judged and found wanting, like so many of us are. As Lily Lawson I can say that happened to someone else, that person exists and continues to live in me, but she is silenced in my writing because that way I can believe in myself, in what I have to say.
I want to speak to people where they are not fill my books with words and ideas than confuse people and leave them wondering what I was on about. If I have a goal in my writing maybe it's that one day someone will list one of my books in a list of 'The books that stay in my head'