Hello, beautiful readers! Today I have the pleasure of introducing you to Steven Neil, a member of the Rave Reviews Book Club (#RRBC)! Steven writes historical fiction and Victorian historical romance. He has a BSc in Economics from the London
School of Economics, a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the
Open University and an MA in Creative Writing from Oxford Brookes University.
He has been a bookmaker's clerk, bloodstock agent, racehorse breeder and
management consultant amongst other professions in his varied career. He is married
and lives in rural Northamptonshire, England. The Merest Loss is his debut
novel. Steven is here today to share with us some authors who inspire him.
Inspirations
for writing: Ten authors.
Here are ten snapshots of the authors who
have inspired me in my writing career.
Jane
Austen
Ground breaking. Smart, funny, acute and
influential on authors ever since. All her novels can be read again and again
but I particularly love Mansfield Park and Persuasion.
Anthony
Trollope
The master craftsman. Witty, arch,
satirical and full of wonderful observation and subtle character assassination.
Try the Barchester Chronicles or The Way We Live Now.
Thomas
Hardy
The doyen of 19th century rural
romance with a cutting edge. Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Far From The Madding
Crowd combine plot, character and setting to great effect; elegies to a time
gone by.
Ernest
Hemingway
The man who showed us all how to tell a lot
more story in a lot less words. The Old Man and the Sea and For Whom the Bell
Tolls do not disappoint.
F.
Scott Fitzgerald
A gifted, extravagant and flawed genius. The
Great Gatsby still glitters. The best short stories have their own special
magic and The Diamond as Big as the Ritz and The Lees of Happiness are two of my
favourites.
John
Steinbeck
Doesn’t seem to get the attention he
deserves these days but Of Mice and Men and The Grapes of Wrath are great
examples of how to develop character through dialogue and action rather than
telling.
J.D.
Salinger
First person stream of consciousness
writing at its best. The Catcher in the Rye is quite rightly a modern classic
but the much less well known, and equally brilliant, short story collection,
For Esme with Love and Squalor, is also a joy.
John
Fowles
A truly English 20th century
author with his roots in the 19th century. The Magus is wonderfully
exotic storytelling and the effortless switching between points of view, in
Daniel Martin, shows how it should be done.
Kazuo
Ishiguro
An author other writers can learn from:
meticulous, elegant and atmospheric. Remains of the Day and Never Let Me Go are
very different but equally captivating.
Hilary
Mantel
A modern ‘great’ in my view. Wolf Hall is
not an easy novel but it repays investment and the omniscient narration in the
present tense is a powerful mix in Mantel’s hands.
©
Steven Neil
I'm sure many of us can agree with him on those authors! If you love historical fiction or Victorian historical romance, then you are going to want to read his debut novel, The Merest Loss.
A story of love and political intrigue, set against
the backdrop of the English hunting shires and the streets of Victorian London
and post-revolutionary Paris.
When Harriet Howard
becomes Louis Napoleon’s mistress and financial backer and appears at his side
in Paris in 1848, it is as if she has emerged from nowhere. How did the English
daughter of a Norfolk boot-maker meet the future Emperor? Who is the mysterious
Nicholas Sly and what is his hold over Harriet?
Can Harriet meet her obligations and return to her former life and the man she left behind? What is her involvement with British Government secret services? Can Harriet’s friend, jockey Tom Olliver, help her son Martin solve his own mystery: the identity of his father?
THE MEREST LOSS is available in
paperback and eBook in the UK, US, France, Canada and Australia.
Follow
Steven Neil on https://twitter.com/stevenneil12 for information on how to purchase the
paperback through an independent bookseller in the UK.
Email - stevenneil1@aol.com
To follow along with the rest of the tour, please visit the author's tour page on the 4WillsPublishing site. If you'd like to book your own blog tour and have your book promoted in similar grand fashion, please click HERE.
Thanks for supporting this author and his work!
I liked this post, as I could connect with the view of Steven's inspirational authors, many of which i have read. Thank you for sharing Yvette. Wishing Steven great success with his book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting, Balroop! :-)
DeleteWow! That is quite a list of authors! Great ones to be influenced by! Thank you for sharing, Yvette!
ReplyDeleteI recognized 3 authors. Maybe it's a geographical issue. Have a great tour Stephen.
ReplyDeleteI recognize some of them from my high school and college lit classes. Lol! I'm so glad you stopped by, Shirley. :-)
DeleteThanks for hosting, Yvette.
ReplyDeleteIt was my pleasure, Steven. :-)
DeleteThis is s fantastic list of wtiters and their books. There is a couple I haven't read. Thanks for hosting, Yvette:)
ReplyDeleteI'm happy you enjoyed the post, Denise. :-)
DeleteHi, Yvette! This is very interesting. I'm always curious about these things. It's great to know who inspired Steven's writing career. Thanks for hosting!
ReplyDeleteI agree, Vashti. An author's faves give us insight into the author's mind a bit. :-)
DeleteAn interesting list.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Wendy. :-)
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