The Book Blog Tour - review by Patrick Coghlan

Today is day five of the tour. However, there has had to be a change. The good news is that it is now an eight-day blog and we have an extra review of The Dangerous Dance of Emma JJ today, from none other than Patrick Coghlan.

If you are looking for Wendy H, Jones’ review - that will come on Monday 20th.

Patrick doesn’t have a blog, so here is his review, on my blog so that it gains a link:

• The Dangerous Dance of Emma JJ: Written by Annie Try

  The Dangerous Dance of Emma JJ is one of those really readable books: it

  flows, it feels very real, it is interesting and it is written as short informative

  diary entries. And, after reading it, it leaves the reader pondering over the

  lessons to be learned from it.

  Bit by bit, Emma’s history is revealed. We understand some of the issues she

  experiences with being a looked after child. She longs to be ‘Normal’ – but

  what is normal? She shares her vulnerability, and deepest feelings and fears

  with the reader. What a privilege. A diary is something so personal; which is

  probably never normally shared with anyone. I love Emma’s lists, at the end of

  many of the diary entries: I am a list person, myself. We see revised lists, as she

  processes what is happening in her life.

  The book highlights that language is not just words. Emma discovers the

  language of music and dance. It helps her to explore her emotions, to

  understand her relationships better, to feel good about herself, and God speaks

  personally to her through dance.

  Emma’s best friend Cass’s Christian faith is not spoken about much: apart from

  a few references to her going to church and praying about different things, not

  much is said. However, what speaks louder than words is the nature of the

  friendship that she offers Emma: her kindness, her sensitivity, her care, her

  thoughtfulness, her compassion, her generosity, and she is always a good

  listener. Her faith is evidenced in a beautiful lifestyle.

  We discover a lot about relationships, through Emma’s diary. She recognises

  that all relationships have positives and negatives. With family relationships,

  usually the positives outweigh the negatives. Even her mum, despite her failings

  is the only biological mum Emma will ever have. It’s that or nothing.
• Imagine Emma’s joy and excitement when she discovers that she has

  grandparents, and that they want to meet her – but even that comes with huge

  anxieties and unknowns.

  Then there is the Neurofibromatosis. Add that to the mix, and life becomes even

  more complicated.

  As we face life’s challenges and traumas, we can either crumple up underneath

  the pressure, or we can deal with them and be triumphant, despite those issues –

  and it really helps to have a Christian faith.

  Review by Rev Patrick Coghlan: Baptist minister, counsellor and author.

A bit of a day by Annie Try

It’s been a bit of a day. 

I’m writing this on Tuesday, 14th. It’s the third anniversary of the day my son died. It’s ok, I thought, three years is long enough to get on with the day, anyway I need to be in London.

I wobbled a bit on the train when, on checking my phone, I saw my granddaughter had put a photo of James, her Dad, on Facebook. I found one for her which I wasn’t sure she’d seen. I thought about the good times with him and kept it all together to go to my dance class.

But grief creeps in unwanted, so I became physically wobbly as well as emotionally but coped fairly well until my teacher reminded me it’s ok to be sad. I met a friend for lunch and that was good, in fact for a while I was able to think about her and her needs and chat about my book tour and how lovely it was that I had a great group of people helping me.

And then it was back to the station and homeward. I looked at some emails and answered the ones about writing. But then the train ground to a halt and it was announced that no trains could go through Cambridge because of a previous incident. At Royston we were instructed to leave the train and wait for a coach. The first arrived, to take one coach load. Then after another wait I was on the next coach which battled through villages and traffic jams to take an hour to reach Cambridge. I sat next to a lady who glowered at me, then declared she was very angry about travelling even before all this happened and would be grumpy. By the time we reached Cambridge she was able to laugh, had called me an optimist and was prepared to accept that we couldn’t do anything about the situation, except make the most of it. We waited for a train to take us onwards - when it came we filled it to capacity, only to be told after a lengthy wait to change to a different train as no driver could be found for the one we were on! Result: home two and a half hours or so later than expected.

When I arrived home the Flossie, our puppy, had chewed her bed and pulled out the brown filling all over the floor. And the fish and chips bought on the way back from the station were cold.

But, God has been with me today, comforting me when I needed it, helping me to listen when other people needed it, by my husband being on the station when I finally arrived there, and the dog choosing a bed to chew that is already too small for her. The cold fish and chips went down a treat - I was so hungry! The lady on the train had thanked me for being good company and I’d thanked her for the provision of sweets and tissues. I thank God for her.

And meanwhile my blog tour has ticked away in the background with two lovely reviews and I’ve been sent a third non-blog one, so promoting my writing has continued, despite not being able to write on the train.

And tomorrow (today, 15th) is the day of the Christian Book Blurb podcast, where I am interviewed by Matt McChlery. But since that was recorded a few weeks back, I can concentrate on recovering from today!

Here comes my book blog tour

It's happening!

My week of blogs about my new book was nearly a mid-week event, divided by a podcast.  But two volunteers this week filled the gaps and we are ready to go.

For those who aren't writers, let me explain.  This is a promotional week for my book, when people who write, or are good reviewers, review my book in their own blog, for their own readers, but then send it to me and I can send it on through my blog and all my social media links. 

I have people from all over the place reviewing my book, so if it were a genuine tour with me sitting in a bookshop waiting for people to come in and chat about my book, I simply couldn't do it. This way, I am being blogged about from Norfolk, Leicester, Cumbria, Dundee, Dorset and Suffolk. Plus the podcast is from Cambridgeshire.

As long as each of my reviewers like the book, that's fine. If they all hate it, I might have done more harm than good ...

This is where I would have put a very lovely text box full of information about the blog tour in a beautiful script, but unfortunately it squashed itself up into something nearly illegible and lost its beautiful formatting. Here it is - only while I've been moving it about it seems to have lost everything!

So I will show you a little more clearly:

Book Blog Tour - March 2023

13th  Georgie Tennant - Writer, speaker, teacher, giggler

14th  Emily Owen - Writer, speaker, inspirer

15th  Matt McChlery - Writer, podcaster, musician, songwriter,                     preacher, ace interviewer (Christian Book Blurb)

16th  Susan Sanderson - Poet, blogger, unofficial PA

17th  Wendy H. Jones - Writer, speaker, world tourer

18th   Claire F. Dunn - Writer, house restorer, encourager

19th   Ruth Leigh - Writer, speaker, queen of the craft fairs.

Well, it didn't exactly say that, it looked a little bit more official!

And I want to say thank you to each of them for brightening my writing life and making me feel I can do this writing stuff and I have good people around me to push me when I need it and to organise me (thank you Susan), support, inspire and encourage me. (And maybe take me on your travels one day Wendy?)

That's it for now, but I will post links on here and on Twitter and my Annie Try Facebook page and anywhere else I can think of, so that you can read the blogs from Georgie, Emily, Susan, Wendy, Claire and Ruth, plus listen to the podcast from Matt.

Thank you for reading,

Annie