Read Valentina: A Hauntingly Intelligent Psychological Thriller Online
Authors: S. E. Lynes
Valentina: A Hauntingly Intelligent Psychological Thriller (44 page)
How does having a baby affect a woman’s confidence?
What did Shona’s parents teach her about love and life? Valentina’s? Mikey’s?
How did Valentina’s father’s cold treatment and abandonment of the mother affect her feelings about men?
How did her mother’s suffering affect Valentina’s attitude towards control?
Structurally, how effective was it to hear from Georgia only in part two?
Georgia talks of the advantages of a part-time relationship. Can you identify with what she says or see the attraction? Do we all need freedom and is that lacking in most relationships?
How limited is Shona in her worldview?
How effective was the women’s direct address to the reader? How did the narrator/reader relationship change in both instances?
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Like ageing, writing a novel is not for wimps and any writer needs all the support they can get. So the thank yous are many and they are all big ones. Thanks to Sara Bailey, my first tutor, for getting me into this whole writing malarkey and telling me to stop fretting and carry on. To the woman who read
Valentina
and said not no, finally, but yes: Blackbird Commissioning Editor, Rosalie Love, you were that mythical person I’d heard about, you exist! To mother Blackbird, Stephanie Zia, who agreed with Rosalie – you have both dedicated to this project your expertise, generosity and patience but most of all your unwavering faith, and have returned to me the confidence I had lost somewhere between the sofa cushions many years ago. To my Richmond Writing Group, aka the Turbots: Zoe Antoniades, Callie James, John Rogers and Sam Hanson, for sharing their own excellent work and for giving feedback on mine, not to mention many pints of beer and laughs along the way. To my Kingston MA Writing Group led by most excellent alpha dog, Hope Caton, with Robin Bell, Catherine Morris, Colette Lewis, Andrew Baird, and Sam Hanson (again) for giving all that time and energy, again with much laughter, cheap plonk and plenty of cheese. To the Creative Writing tutors on the MA programme at Kingston University – this course fostered new ways of thinking about writing and process and gave me a group of writers who became trusted friends. To David Rogers, who keeps us loosely tethered through Kingston Alumni and who lent me much needed support in the early days when I could easily have given up. Thank you to all my students at Richmond Adult Community College for their support, enthusiasm and for forcing me to think about what works and what doesn’t, then figure out how the hell to explain it – inspiration works both ways and you have all inspired me. To strange fruits Jayne Farnworth, Richard Kipping and Melanie Mortiboys, who for years have been reading my stuff and cheering me along. To my pals who don’t see me from one month to the next when I am hibernating like a badger with a laptop but who make me laugh, lift me up and help me persuade the pub landlord to do a lock-in. To chief listener and devil’s advocate on many a long dog walk, Fi Kelly, who has suffered much droning on, plot wrangling, existentialist doubt and muddy boots. To my dad, Stephen, who isn’t a reader but who supports me in many other ways and always shares his lettuce plugs. To my readers who read excerpts or early drafts, I add apologies to the thanks: my sister, Jackie Ball, who saves the world, raises three kids and still makes time to read my early drafts, to Sally Franklin, Hope Caton, Susie Donaldson, Barbara Wheatley, Lucy Aliband, Sue O’Dea, Elizabeth Bazalgette, Jackie West, Bridget McCann and Jean McLeish. This book is dedicated to Jean, who read the manuscript just before she was taken from us far too soon. To Susy Smith, I owe you a favour. To my beta readers and gremlin spotters, Susie Kelly and Diana Morgan-Hill, thank you. To my brother, Robert M Ball, for the iconic cover design – you are a genius – it runs in the family, ha. To my kids Ali, Maddie and Franci, who must bear the fact of me being in the room but away with the makey-uppy folk. And most of all to two very important people: my mum, Catherine Ball, who has read every embarrassing first draft, every lame story, every cringe-worthy metaphor, every toe-curling piece of dialogue, and without whose unfailing belief and support I would never have continued beyond that first monologue. And finally, to my husband, Paul, who encouraged me from the very beginning to take writing seriously, who rushed home from work so that I could do the MA or get to writing group, who didn’t complain when I wanted to teach in the evenings and at weekends because I thought it was important, who has given me the time and space to try and make a go of my dream: you are beyond brill, but I can’t say more just now because someone might read this.
This book belongs to all of you. Thank you, thank you.
S.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After graduating from Leeds University, S. E. Lynes lived in London for a couple of years before moving to Aberdeen to be with her husband. In Aberdeen, she worked as a Radio Producer at the BBC before moving with her husband and two young children to Rome. There, she began to write while her children attended nursery. After the birth of her third child and upon her return to the UK, she gained an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University. She now combines writing with teaching creative writing at Richmond Adult Community College and bringing up her three children. She lives in Teddington, SW London. Connect with S. E. Lynes on Twitter @SELynesAuthor and Facebook S_E_LynesAuthor.
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COPYRIGHT
Copyright © S. E. Lynes 2016
Published by Blackbird Digital Books
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
eBook ISBN 978-0-993307-09-6
[A paperback version of this book is available from all good bookstores
ISBN-978-0-993307-08-9]
Cover design by Robert Ball
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Except in the case of brief quotations quoted in reviews or critical articles, no part of this ebook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, whether mechanical or electronic, now-known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. This is a work of fiction. All characters, organisations and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
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