Blog Tour: Sue Lawson's Forget Me Not

Today I'm thrilled to have Sue Lawson write a guest post here at LittleElfMan's. You might know how much I love Sue's writing from my review of Pan's Whisper and the wonderful post for its blog tour. I'm not going to hog the stage too much, because this is all about Sue and her great new book, a historical fiction novel that follows one family's voyage on the Titanic. I asked Sue to write a particular guest blog and she responded brilliantly! Over to you, Sue!

Hi Michael, it’s lovely to visit your blog again. This is the very first stop on the Forget Me Not Tour and I'm very excited about all the stops I'll be making over the next two weeks!

I had a ball answering your questions about Pan’s Whisper.

Forget Me Not is different to Pan’s Whisper, in that Pan’s Whisper is a young adult novel and work of fiction while Forget Me Not is a junior fiction novel and based on an historical event – the sinking of the Titanic.

So, Sue, you’re packing for a journey to the other side of the world on the largest ocean liner in the world, and you’ll be starting a new life at your destination.

(Please tell me journey doesn’t end the same way as the Titanic’s journey ended!)

 Step us through your packing process…

Sue Lawson's Forget Me Not Blog Tour Intro

I just wanted to write a post about a blog tour that's kicking off next week for Sue Lawson's new book: 'Forget Me Not'.

Last year I had the wonderful pleasure of hosting a stop on Sue's last blog tour for Pan's Whisper which was great.

This time, I've got the honour of of being first cab off the rank!

This is the line up for tour:

28th March

Me!

29th March

Sheryl Gwyther

30th Mar

Tara Calby

1st April

Forget Me Not

2nd April

Shirley Marr

3rd April

Bug In A Book

5th April

Novels On The Run

So be sure to stop on by and any/all of these blogs next week to read about Sue's great little Junior Historical Fiction account of one family's journey on the Titanic.

I've (once again) had some fun with Sue, and asked her to describe packing up her house for a voyage of epic proportions. (Not one quite as devastating as the Titanic). So stop by next week to learn what one author would pack up and take with her in a trans-continent re-location.

Also, be sure to keep your eyes out for 'Forget Me Not', hitting the stores in April.

Blog Tour: Pan's Whisper by Sue Lawson

Very excited to be hosting a stop in Sue Lawson's Blog Tour for Pan's Whisper!

If you haven't already, you can read my review of it HERE (I'm still a little chuffed that my review made her speechless!)

The other stops on the tour have been asking all the hard and interesting questions about Pan's Whisper and the writing process and all that melting pot of goodies that resulted in the brilliant book. These are all great, and I wanted to know them too, but I read them elsewhere and decided to do something a bit different here.

I thought I'd use this as an opportunity to get to know Sue a bit more, so I've asked her a series of less serious questions for a fun and frivolous way to start this, the last week in the lead up to Christmas.

So let's jump in!



What was the last book you read?
I’m studying my masters, so the last book I read was for that – Pagan’s Crusade – loved it! 
Now I’m reading masses of short stories.
Plus, I have also just read Karen Tayleur’s latest manuscript. WOW!
(Oo! I've got Six sitting on my to-read-sooner-than-later pile at home. And Snap! I'm doing my Masters too.)

Score out of 10?
Pagan’s Crusade – 8/10
Short Stories – vary
Karen Tayleur’s manuscript. 10/10 
(Can't wait to read it then!)


Any books you have re-read over and over?
Heaps – The Outsiders, SE Hinton, Dirt Music and The Riders both by Tim Winton, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee and a few others. Generally though I’m flat out keeping up with my reading pile, so it’s not often I re-read books.
(I know what you mean! Sometimes I find myself thinking I'd LOVE to re-read something, but where's the time?)


Where’s your favourite place to read?
I’ll read anywhere. I do love reading in bed, though I often read until my eyes hurt and have had the book fall on my face more than once.
(What I've noticed recently, is that I'll be reading in bed and then I'll find myself thinking, Wait, why isn't the story progressing? oh, that's right, my eyes are closed!)


What book would you most like to see turned into a film?
That’s a tough one as generally I don’t love film adaptations (see below for those I did!). I’d probably like to see Dirt Music because the setting (WA) is so amazing.
(Hehe, I've got a t-shirt that says: 'MOVIES: Ruining the book since 1920')


What is the best film adaptation of a book that you can think of?
Atonement. Man I loved that book and to be honest was a little scared about the film, but loved it. My advice to anyone who is a romantic, leave or turn it off when the old lady is about to be interviewed!
The other film adaptations I’ve enjoyed are Lord of the Rings (Wow! I like that far too much!) and Harry Pottter.
(Have to say, I'm a bit more than partial to the last two... I've never read Atonement though, but I thoroughly enjoyed the first half the that movie.)


Where was the best Holiday you’ve taken to?
Last year, my husband, daughter and I went to Italy, Switzerland, France and England. We had the most amazing time.

(Nothing like a bit of public nudity :)


Favourite Dessert?
Baked Cheesecake with berries. Or Lemon Tart.
(Mmm Cheesecake with berries...)


Dogs or Cats? (or something else entirely?)
Dogs – preferable robust, loving and personality filled dogs like Labradors (We had two labs when I was growing up – Sam and Rocky) We used to have a Cairn Terrier called Dougall – now he was a sensational dog!
(Is it too embarrassing for me to say I've got a soft toy dog called Dougall?)


Who would you cast in a Bio flick about you?
Susan Saradon. She is just a fantastic actress.
(Ooo, good pick! She's great! I loved her in Elizabethtown)


Ideal night out?
With friends, at a restaurant – Thai, Indian or maybe Malaysian. 


Ideal night in?
Either have friends over for a barbeque or watch a movie with my husband and daughter.


If you had to pick one food that was the only thing you could eat for the rest of your life, what would it be?
One food – you’re kidding. Okay - fruit, especially berries. So it’s cheating, but I love food too much to be stuck to only one kind!
(Yes, I know what you mean, Just one??? It is a cruel question.)


Name a guilty pleasure when it comes to your reading life.
Jilly Cooper. I love her books – they baddies are so bad and the goodies so good.
(They do look like a bit of a guilty pleasure...)


Are your dinner plates patterned or plain?
Plain. Hope that isn’t indicative of my personality! In my defence, I love the look of food on plain plates – we eat lots of veggies and the colours are spectacular. Okay, now I just sound weird!
(Not at all! In my opinion, patterned is a thing of by-gone tastes - with few exceptions - who knows, in another 30 years our children or grandchildren might think we're so daggy for having plain plates!)


How many members are there in your family? (let’s start with immediate then move to extended)
Immediate – three of us – my husband and daughter.
Extended – two brothers, one sister, Mum, Dad, (who died 14 years ago) two sister in laws, one brother in law, two nieces, three nephews, six cousins, 17 second cousins, two aunts, one uncle…then there is my husband’s family…his parents, sister and brother, sister in law, six nephews…okay I’ll stop.
We’re a relatively small family. A friend of mine is one of 18 brothers and sisters!
(Sounds like it's big enough when you start looking at extended members.)


What was your favourite board game as a child? (or now, if you’re anything like me).
As a child I loved playing Monopoly – not so much now. My daughter has been able to whip me since she was about 8. Not good for the ego.
(Monopoly was never one of my favourites, I always seem to loose. But I'm a sucker for Board games in general)

And finally,
What’s the most random/left-of-field thing anyone has ever said to you?
“Oh – I thought you’d be blonde.” (Guy at a pub when I worked in radio. He was so disappointed when he saw me. Wish I had the words to describe his face! Apparently I sounded short and blonde when I was on radio – not sure how to take that.)
Then there was the time when…I’ll stop shall I?

(Well, sometimes you just can't live up to expectations! But, that's his problem. I can think of a few witty remarks, but lets keep it PG, shall we?)

Sue Lawson (Left) at the Pan's Whisper book launch with Corinne Fention.

Thanks so much, Sue, for your fantastic answers! I've had so much fun reading them through and putting this post together. It was such a pleasure!

-

Here are some of the places you can find Sue and discover what she's up to:

Website - Facebook - Twitter - Blog

Don't forget you can follow my Blog and find me on Twitter and like my blog on Facebook too:

Pan's Whisper by Sue Lawson

For starters, I’d like to preface this review by saying that I don’t go out of my way to read realism. It’s not really my genre of choice, but every now and then I’ll read something that makes me think: If it’s all this good, I really should be reading more of this stuff!

Pan’s Whisper is the first book by Sue Lawson that I’ve read, even though she has written nearly 20. Once again, trust me to discover someone brilliant who has a huge backlist that now I feel compelled to add to my already overloaded reading pile. She is a Victorian who’s writing voice is convincingly Australian without coming close to being overbearingly so.

Back to the book at hand: Pan’s Whisper.

I’m sitting here, staring at the book, trying to think of what to write and all that’s going through my head is: Oooo I loved this book!

So, I will try to do better than that.

Pan (short for Pandora) is being put into a foster home. (I’m not spoiling anything here; it’s on the back of the book and on the first page…) The trouble is, she doesn’t want to be in foster care, which contributes to her being obnoxious and defiant. She has very particular memories of her childhood and can’t work out why she should be there. She feels betrayed by her sister and misses her mother, as difficult as her mother could be.

Enter Hunter, a boy who couldn’t possibly know what she’s going through. Could he?

The thing about this book that really made it work for me (other than the brilliant writing) was the format. We experience life with Pan, who has buried memories she doesn’t want to uncover. Early on, her foster mother suggests writing to her sister and supplies paper, envelopes and stamps so she can post them herself. The book then unfolds like this: Pan lives her life in foster care, attending a new school; she sees or experiences something that causes a fractured flashback; she then writes to her sister (letter format) describing the memory from the point of view of her younger self; then we are shown that same experience from Pan’s sister’s perspective which, bit by bit, reveals the lengths the she went to in order to protect Pan from what was actually happening. It is these memories from the sister’s perspective that become increasingly heart wrenching.

My goodness this book is fantastic! I’m getting shivers just writing about it!

If you like realism, then it’s for you. If you’re not so partial, then I suggest you give it a go anyhow. Each time I see the cover or hear ‘Pan’s Whisper’ I think: that book was GOOD! I’m sure you will too.

The Chapter Sampler is HERE