Two contrasting holiday reads by Clare Hawkins

The prospect of several long train journeys, with preparedness for possible delays, sent us out in search of some reading material. By coincidence, my own choice ‘Shy Creatures’ by Claire Chambers and my husband’s ‘Hope: A Tragedy’ by Shalom Auslander both contain characters who are in hiding from the world. 

However, the two novels, which we read avidly, could not have been more different in tone, style, structure and genre.

William in ‘Shy Creatures’ is imprisoned by his unworldly and misguided aunts, in an attempt to protect him from what they imagine will be the dire consequences of his contact with society. The reasons for this are revealed gradually in the reverse chronological story of his life from childhood. His story is interconnected with the viewpoint of Helen one of the two therapists, who are also lovers, responsible for his treatment in a mental hospital after he is found as a damaged adult. Themes of childhood innocence, families and trust are explored in the context of the 1960s setting. For readers like us who were brought up in that period, the social attitudes and values of the time are a reminder of how much has changed. The presentation of childhood longing, loneliness and disappointment I found most powerful and poignant and I was glad that the story for most of the characters offered hope of something positive in their lives.

y contrast, the notion of hope is an excruciating experience for Kugel, the ‘hero’ of ‘Hope: a Tragedy’. The hilariously miserabilist Kugel is tortured by doubt, fear and the pressure of family obligations and guilt, as he searches for the meaning of life and a fitting epitaph for his gravestone. His discovery of an ancient hidden occupant in the attic of his newly purchased old farmhouse, sets him on a course of disastrous decisions with painful and outrageous consequences. His expressions of despair, religious conflict and his existential crises are mostly highly comedic. However, there are also so some uncomfortable and revealing truths in Kugel’s reflections on contemporary western societies. 

Train delays are not so tedious if one can escape into an absorbing book!

Marketing for Introverts

It's very hard to be both a writer and promoter, the two don't generally sit comfortably together. Writing is an insular activity suited to introverts, and promotion is more suited to extroverts. So what do you do when you need to switch roles? One way is to create promotional material that focuses on the book (or creative work) rather than yourself.  In other words, you tell a story about the story. To promote my novel The Mune on social media, I achieved this by using stop motion films.

Below are some stills taken from the first short film I created using draft pages from my manuscript The Mune, my iPhone (an old SE), a small tripod and an App called Stop Motion Studio.  The tripod was an addition I found necessary after discovering how difficult it was to keep the camera still when moving pieces of paper for each shot - the egg box just didn't cut it. Even though it took hours to complete, I enjoyed the process much more than standing in front of a camera

Using an App like Stop Motion Studio made the whole process easier and, as I mentioned, you don't need the latest phone to achieve good results, just a willingness to make mistakes. You also need a lot of Blu Tack! My whole spend was under £10 because I used objects I already had, such as a shoebox painted black for the staging. 

If this feels too difficult, you could consider creating a reel. You could choose photographs related to your work and record yourself speaking. Most social media platforms have this function but if, like me, you want more control, you could use PowerPoint slides and insert the audio (then export it into a MP3 file) to achieve good results.

Even in our current Celebrity Culture there are options. Story-based marketing works well to grab scrollers attention and also prepares you for interviews - highlighting key aspects of your novel .