hi hayley read House Fire. good title , good cover,good blurb. you've also got plot but after the initial shock of the house fire the plot is very conventional. and the reaction to the loss of parents does not feel quite right. it always fascinates me how some writers seem to think they need to kill 'off their parents in some way to have a life of their own, its a bit drastic. But it may be because parents are overparenting... Show more
hi hayley read House Fire. good title , good cover,good blurb. you've also got plot but after the initial shock of the house fire the plot is very conventional. and the reaction to the loss of parents does not feel quite right. it always fascinates me how some writers seem to think they need to kill 'off their parents in some way to have a life of their own, its a bit drastic. But it may be because parents are overparenting and not letting young people feel they can be taking risks and getting on with life . I think that is particularly true of the US. I think the book says I want independence and I wanna get on with life now; lover house, baby . this comes out in the way you get to the freedom of no parents so quickly.
Loss of close relatives isn't so easy to get over if you can't imagine that try the feelings for loss of a pet . The loss model is usually shock, disbelief, denial, anger, depression, and renewal.
I think you kind jof jump from shock to renewal . thats ok that can seem to happen but people oftenhave problems if the trauma is not discussed and the feelings dealt with.
Soldiers ofen get this; they have combat stress which is not dealt with and it comes back ;later you should continue the book but bring in the effects of post traumatic stress, eg vivid recall,of the event in dreams , over sensitivity to fire , eg to bonfires, open fires, sleepless nights,
hearing dead parents speak to you or seeing them. Laying the ghosts perhaps by speaking to them or writing them a letter. This could all be happening against the basically happy background of your life with husband and child. ie you work through your problems of your delayed reaction to the fire
check out these concepts ;the helpless helper, and look at interviews of the men who survived the Piper Alpha disaster.
One of the problems for a writer is that people do not want stories that are always happy,
they gravitate towards grief ; if you are a happy person it is a challenge to talk about problems but there we get to one of the other skills ; research , if you don't have a lot of life experience and emotional experience don't worry you have a good imagination but also you can talk, so ask people who have been through things, grannies, firemen, policemen; make notes then pull it together.there is a good message in your book which is go for renewal, go for life.
another thing in your book is a hint of prophecy, of mapping out an imagined future for you or your character. The three women in nordic belief illustrate this ;see my story Threads;, these women were called the Norns ; they wove the web of life on a magic loom . in essence every woman weaves her web of life . you have begun!
Np! I liked the book!! :)
Thanks, that's good to hear! :)
Yeah! I loved the book!!! U need to update!!! :)