Teenagers, by Maxine Linnell

What if you were growing up now - perhaps as a 17-year-old? How would life differ from being a teenager in the 1960s, as I was? I started to wonder about that when I began writing my first novel. How would the life of a 17-year-old girl from today compare with that of a girl of 17 in 1962? And not just the obvious things, like technology - but the way people lived, their values, their families, their ways of dealing with each other?

I didn’t need to do much research into the '60s. I set the book just before the explosion of the Beatles, when teenagers were only just beginning to be seen as having a distinct life between childhood and being grown up. In 1962 the biggest event in the social calendar was the church social on Saturday night, over before 9.30pm with no alcohol or kissing allowed.
But while I knew some teenagers, I had to find a parallel social event for 2010 - and someone suggested going clubbing at Mosh, a nightclub in the centre of Leicester. I knew what a club was like in the 60s - but how would it differ now? There was only one way to find out. Which is how I found myself queuing up outside Mosh with my agent on a Friday night at 11pm, well past my usual bedtime.
I thought about asking for a senior concession, but decided against it. I did wonder if they’d let me in at all when I saw the queue of young people, who could all have been my grandchildren. There was also a moment of apprehension when I met the bouncers at the door. But they did let me in. I wasn’t too surprised by the black paint, the darkened rooms and the music, they weren’t so very different from my memories of clubbing forty years ago (see me as a teen in '62 - right). The toilets were pretty much the same too - unsavoury, but with stickers offering advice lines if you thought you were pregnant, gay or had a sexual problem.
As people arrived, we began talking to them, and found them interested, polite and very willing to talk. We left after midnight - me stealing a glance at the crowded dance floor, half wishing I could join in.
There may be more freedom nowadays - but there are also more risks. The stricter boundaries of the early '60s might offer more support, more hand-holding, and more to rebel against. But many young people now are emotionally more mature than I was, more aware of themselves, perhaps not quite as likely to be taken in. And there’s far more openness and communication. There’s dark and light in both times.

You can read more from Maxine Linnell in her Five Leaves book, Vintage, available from: http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/vintage-2/. Also available as an ebook.

Carousel review for Closer

We occasionally post summaries of reviews, but sometimes it feels like we should post entire reviews. In this case, our author Maxine Linnell is very pleased with this review of her young adult novel Closer. The review appears in the current issue of the children's/young adult review magazine Carousel and is written by Yvonne Coppard. Closer is available in paperback and as an eBook.

Mel is a teenager who feels increasingly disconnected - from life, from family, and from any hope of happiness with Raj, the boy she really likes but whom she can’t believe is interested in her. She wars with her older sister and is irritated by her younger brother Only her stepfather seems to know how to reach her. And as the story goes on, we realise there is something Mel isn’t telling us - the darkest secret of all, the fear that hovers in the heart of every careful parent. Her stepfather is too close, and Mel doesn’t know what to do about it. There are many autobiographies in the best-seller charts that deal with the manipulation and sexual abuse of children. Strange then, that the most realistic, most compelling read I’ve come across for a long time is this piece of fiction. For most abuse is not defined by abduction, enslavement and involving terrified obedience. No, most of it is manipulation, a distortion of genuine love and buried in the heart of a family that becomes increasingly dysfunctional without understanding why it is happening. Mel’s hesitant, half-told account of what’s going on builds the suspense; there are no gory details; we kind-of know what’s coming but can’t be sure what will happen next. It’s impossible to make a story like this ring true for everyone, but as a sensitive and realistic portrayal of the complexity of incest and the quiet devastation it wreaks on a family, this is up there with the best I’ve read.
Yvonne Coppard

Sometimes a book only tells half the story

Earlier this week we launched Maxine Linnell's second book, Closer, at Knighton Library in Leicester, with many of her friends and with colleagues from Leicester Writers' Club out in force. Probably most people knew that Maxine had a personal tragedy in the period leading up to the book's publication. The adage "the show must go on" is not always true but sometimes it is better if the show does go on. I'm sure Maxine would not want the loss of her son Ben to define her completely but we need to recognise it. She was asked to write the article below on a book blog, and we are linking to that with her permission.
http://notesfromtheslushpile.blogspot.com/2011/07/writings-struggle-and-then-life-gets-in.html

New Maxine Linnell book from Five Leaves

Maxine Linnell's time travel young adult novel Vintage was well received. In her new Five Leaves book, now available, Maxine turns to a more difficult issue - what happens when a father gets too close. This was an difficult book to edit as we were keen that the father in question was understood, not demonised, yet we had to be clear on the impact of his behaviour on the whole family. It is a book about love, about families, and about teenage friendship and trust as well. Maxine has taken on a difficult issue and dealt with it sensitively. Copies are available on:

http://www.inpressbooks.co.uk/closer_maxine_linnell_i022633.aspx

Where would we be without amoebas?

Derbyshire Readers Day - mentioned earlier as drawing its speakers only from small independent presses - was a great success, at least as far as this indie is concerned. Six of the speakers, Berlie Doherty, Stephen Booth, Dan Tunstall, Maxine Linnell, Danuta Reah and Charlie Williams are all associated with Five Leaves, though we are not their sole publisher in four cases but on this day they were all in our orbit. I was also pleased to chair a publishers' panel with the editors of Smith/Doorstep, Templar, Shoestring and Route, and to attend a lecture by one of the editors of Peepal Tree on the Caribbean history that forms the backdrop to Caribbean writing. I hope Jeremy Poynting repeats this talk elsewhere. It will certainly soon appear on Peepal Tree's website. Quote of the day was from Danuta Reah who mentioned that she had some dealings once with a computer shop where the owner, "would have been a serial killer had he not gone into computing". Malcolm Burgess also raised a laugh when he reported that I'd [accidentally] described Five Leaves as a "micro press" which made him think that his Oxygen Press must be an "amoeba press".

Thanks and congratulations to Derbyshire Libraries for taking the risk of devoting their whole annual event to the groundlings.

Commedia dell'arte

It's been a few years since I've been to Nottingham Writers' Club. I went along to support our Maxine Linnell, author of Vintage and the forthcoming Closer. Pitched up early, didn't recognise anyone but noticed there was a bookstall to check out during the break, and made myself comfortable. "Are you the speaker?" asks one of the women present. "No, I'm her publisher." Blank look. "You are the Writers' Club?" "No, we're the Harlequin group." Oops. The only Harlequin group I'd known in town had been for TV/TS people so I wished I'd had time to look at the bookstall but didn't want to be late for the meeting I was supposed to be in. Got into the right meeting, said to the bloke next to me that I'd gone first to the wrong room. "Ah - the Harlequins - they used to be Ladies' Gas, but they changed their name." I could hear the next part of the conversation, though it did not happen. "Not transvestites then?" "Nay, lad, I don't think so. They used to work for British Gas."

Maxine was very good.

Derbyshire Readers Day goes indie: 11/12 March, Matlock

Derbyshire's annual Readers Day this year concentrates on authors published by independent publishers ranging from the Caribbean specialist Peepal Tree through to the famously fleet of foot Route. What is exciting is that every author reading is from the small independent world, or, in the case of Stephen Booth and Berlie Doherty, sometimes write for small presses (us, actually) but are usually within the mainstream. Our other writers include Dan Tunstall and Maxine Linnell talking about "young people - can't live with them, can't live without them" and a first outing for some of our new Crime Express series with Dabuta Reah and Charlie Williams keeping it short, but not sweet. I'll also be on a publisher panel with Peter Sansom from The Poetry Business and Ian Daley from Route, carefully chosen so we can discuss poetry, fiction and non-fiction. The day is actually 24 hours with Stephen Booth and Danuta Reah reading on the Friday evening as well, and afternoon tea with Candlestick Press.
The whole day costs £15 with a supplement for Friday of £3 or a Friday only ticket for £7. Full details on www.derbyshire.gov.uk/publishersday. Early booking encouraged.

Left Lion interview with Maxine Linnell re Vintage

http://www.leftlion.co.uk/articles.cfm/id/3015

Vimtos all round

You need something to wash down Dairylea white bread sandwiches, Victoria sponge and the like, a major feature of Maxine Linnell's 1962 food table at the launch of her book Vintage on Thursday night. I was too busy with bookselling to get anywhere near the '62 or the 2010 food tables (her novel is set in both times) but the crowds got stuck in. And there were crowds too, so thanks to Kate, Terry, Rod Duncan and the others at Leicester Writers Club for organising a great launch. Maxine was a bit shocked at the numbers, but proved to be a great reader and good in conversation. The audience also got stuck into debating the differences between then and now, and it was good to have a teenager debating as well as some of the older crowd. It was a great night. Well done Maxine.

New this month from Five Leaves

Big month at Five Leaves Towers for young adult fiction... Maxine Linnell's Vintage is out, her first novel, a time slip novel set in 1962 and 2010, where two girls unwillingly change places. The Ivy Crown by Gill Vickery is a re-issue, set in pagan times and modern times. Robert Swindells joins our list with a re-issue - another time slip novel - set in Bronte country, with a strong Bronte connection, Follow a Shadow. Finally, Sherry Ashworth joins Five Leaves with a new novel, Revolution, where some school students' protest against their school closure gets a bit out of control. More on http://www.fiveleaves.co.uk/.