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Kate Jacobs Interview, Contest and Blog Tour: Knit The Season

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Thriftymommasbrainfood is so excited to offer an interview with Kate Jacobs and a review of her latest paperback release, the third story in her Friday Night Knitting Club series. Also there is a contest involved as well, so stay tuned to the end of the blog for information. Jacobs is a #1 New York Times Best-selling Author. Her latest novel, in paperback this week, is a lovely story of female friendships filled with strong and admirable female characters. It starts with Dakota Walker, pastry chef and daughter of the late Georgia, force of nature, returning home at Christmas time. Walker is surrounded and supported by her mother’s friends and, in this novel, she is forced to make important choices balancing friends and family. She returns home at the holidays with intentions of turning the somewhat neglected knitting shop into a knitting cafe. This is a lovely story perfect for the season and complete with reader’s guide is a natural choice for book clubs. I have enjoyed this series, particularly because of the great characters.

1. Can you tell readers a bit about your writing habits and what your day looks like when you are working on a novel?


KJ: My writing schedule varies and I’ve tried all sorts of different methods: Writing daily, writing every other day, always taking Fridays off, you name it. I think we all have our own rhythm and it’s unique to each writer. But I always come back to the same pattern: Writing daily (sometimes for long hours) for weeks and weeks and then taking several weeks to rest, read, and edit. I just repeat that cycle until I finish a
book, and have typically edited my draft multiple times before I turn it in. I tend to dress in very comfy clothes – I have special writing pajamas – and if I feel stuck, I grab my laptop and move locations around the house. I might write on the couch for a while and then return to the desk in my home office. My dog, Baxter, prefers when I stay put because my writing coincides with his daily nap. (In other words, he naps anytime I pull out the computer.)

2. For budding authors what advice do you have?


KJ: Sneak time to write regularly. It’s not a very glamorous secret, but it’s crucial. Sometimes I meet aspiring writers who confide that they have a half-finished novel in a drawer at home and ask me how they can complete it. My answer it always the same: Open the drawer! In all seriousness, writing is challenging. Instead of waiting for the moment of inspiration, simply sit down and get some sentences onto the page. Silence your inner critic with the promise to edit, edit, edit, and just march forward. And I am a huge procrastinator! Nothing looks as interesting as folding the laundry when a manuscript is due.

3. Who are some of your favourite authors?


KJ: I jump for joy when certain writers bring out new works: William Trevor, Alice Munro, and Kazuo Ishiguro. I love to read and they are each such masterful storytellers.

4. What motivates you to get out of bed every morning?


KJ: Breakfast! Hanging out with my husband and my dog. The chance to see what’s going to happen next in whatever story I’m writing. The knowledge that I’ll probably sneak in a nap later on. All the good stuff.

5. You write amazingly strong and three dimensional female characters. Can you tell readers of thriftymommasbrainfood and thriftymommastips if that is deliberate and if they are modelled after any females in your life?

KJ: Thanks so much! I want to write characters (particularly women) that are smart and strong – I never write stupid women though the characters often make questionable choices! For the most part, I don’t use real people as models as I find it more liberating to just follow my imagination. That said, I do sometimes weave in personality elements from people who are no longer in my life, and Gran (Dakota’s great-grandmother in Scotland) is a good example as she has much in common with my late grandmother, Nanny. That’s just a writer’s way of revisiting with a missed loved one.

Knit The Season is by Kate Jacobs, published through Penguin Group Canada, paperback edition out this week, $17.50 Canadian, $14 U.S.

This one gets $$$$ out of $$$$$.

Thanks very much for talking with me and for sharing with our readers.
This contest and blog tour is offering two signed copies of Knit The Season for two lucky readers.
To win:
1.Follow thriftymommasbrainfood on GFC.
2.Follow me on twitter @inkscrblr
3.Leave me information on how to contact you if you win.
I will draw for the winners on Nov. 26th with random.org. Thanks and good luck!

Clementine review

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This series of books is new to our household. My avid little readers received this one and I thought it worthy of some space here on brainfood. Let me tell you why. Clementine is a cute, quirky girl character I enjoyed a lot. Clementine is talented and she is in gifted math at school, as she will tell you quickly in her story.
She has crazy orange hair, is impulsive and has renamed her darling little brother peas or broccoli or radish or whatever vegetable name she feels appropriate on any given day. That’s partly out of spite that her parents have given her the name of a fruit. You can almost hear the huffy disdain in the main character’s voice. Although this book is a tiny bit Junie B. Jones combined with the various other cute girl characters that are so popular amongst the grade school set, this one stood out to me for a couple of reasons. I like that Clementine is quite clearly a girl with gifted abilities and a bit of ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). I know that Grandma didn’t know that when she bought this book for my darling Payton’s ninth birthday. But the character is not your average little girl. I love how Clementine gives us funny insights into her abilities and the way she sees it. She often states that she is always getting in trouble for not paying attention, but she also describes it as hyperattentiveness to other stuff ( which is pretty much how I see both of my children’s abilities on most days of the week). “I got busy working on my project, so I wouldn’t have to hear any: “Clementine-pay-attention’s!”. Except I did anyway.Which was unfair because each time I was the only person in the whole art room who was paying attention which is why I could tell everyone right in the middle of the Pledge of Allegiance that the lunch room lady was sitting in the janitor’s car and they were kissing. Again. No one else saw this disgusting scene because noone else was paying attention out the window!” Clementine has a prissy friend Margaret who is in fourth grade and lives in the same building as the title character. Margaret and Clementine together just cannot seem to stop getting into trouble. The trouble starts when Margaret tries to trim glue from her hair and Clementine tries to help, but instead gets blamed for everything. Clementine is a good friend and a good big sister and a cute girl with a big imagination and a strong creative spirit. I am already seeking the rest of this series out for the children because this book was so cute and it lent itself well to my nightly read out loud format with dramatic reenactments. It is intended for ages 7-10.
I give this book a solid $$$$1/2 out of $$$$$. Price is right and material engaging. Some parents may find her hijinks to be too much and her mouth to be too much (like Junie B. she has a knack for finding trouble.)
Clementine is written by Sara Pennypacker and cover notes it was a New York Times bestseller. Illustrated by Marla Frazee. Price is $4.99 in the U.S. , Paperback, Hyperion Paperbacks for Children.

A Change in Altitude

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Anita Shreve is an immensely successful popular fiction author and yet I had read none of her stories prior to this one. A Change in Altitude is the story of a marriage transformed by a singular tragic minor fleeting event. Not an indiscretion, but more a kneejerk reaction to physical stress. It is a compelling and quick read, perfect for this weather, ideal for at the cottage or a weekend at the beach. A Change in Altitude is very much plot-driven and characters, while interesting, are somewhat two-dimensional. This is the story of a newly married couple, Patrick and Margaret, both 28 as the novel opens, who have moved, following Patrick’s career to Nairobi for medical research. When the story begins, the newlyweds are living with Arthur and Diana, a well-to-do, condescending British couple of landlords. The themes here of love and loss and soul-searching with a backdrop of harsh unforgiving elements are not uncommon, and some might say overdone. A struggling relationship juxtaposed with a harsh African climate is certainly a story that has been told, again and again. And yet despite all of the superficialilities here, it is a nice read. No great turn of phrase that made my heart skip a beat, wishing I had thought of it myself. No masterful suspense, or great unexpected twist at the end. There are moments that will shock you, and in the interest of not giving too much away I will simply state that this is the story of a couple who go climbing Mount Kenya, in harshest African environment, without much training, preparation or thought and, accompanied by friends, on this life-altering physical journey they experience a devastating event that transforms all four of their lives. What follows the ill-thought out climb is the unravelling and piecing together of a marriage, and perhaps a bit of self discovery on the part of Margaret. Shreve’s detail of climbing Mount Kenya is brutally realistic and detailed, as it should be, because the author herself has climbed this mountain. Shreve is billed as a master of domestic drama and she dwells a lot on psychology of relationships, but her hand is somehow a lighter touch than that of similar authors like Jodi Picoult. While I enjoyed reading this book for a change and realize not every book can rip your heart out and leave you changed as a reader, I unfortunately suspect this book is easy to forget, as are the characters. Shreve lives in Massachusetts and is the well known author of The Weight of Water, Testimony, The Pilot’s Wife, Light on Snow and many others.

Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Book Group, Back Bay Books, New York, 2009. Paperback edition 2010, $17.99 Canada and $14.99 U.S.

Thriftymommas rating $$$ out of $$$$$. Three dollar signs out of five. Lightweight, untaxing. Great for a day at the beach. Thriftymomma’s opinions are all her own. I receive no compensation for my reviews, but a copy of this book was provided by the publisher for free so that I might review it.