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As Far as the Stars

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I'm finally writing 'The Scary Book' - the book my I'm finally writing 'The Scary Book' - the book my agent has been on at me to write for about 10 years, a historical novel and I feel like a very different kind of writer already.⁣✨ ⁣ A friend summed up the difference between being a contemporary fiction writer and a historical fiction writer as the difference between being a journalist and a historian. I think that sums it up pretty well. Until now, I've loved my status as a journalist: interviewing everyday people in the here and now about issues that relate to my novels. Observing daily life. Drawing from what is around me.⁣✨ ⁣ For this novel, I'm having to be a historian, and it's a bit scary because I don't really see myself as a historian (I know...I know…Growth Mindset...). Anyway, fortunately for me, there are some awesome resources out there, including this lovely British produced podcast I found called Travels Through Time. Today, I learned lots about the cold, cold winter in Berlin in 1939 and how Berliners were experiencing that strange time when war had been declared but nothing much was happening.⁣✨ ⁣ If you're a writer of historical fiction and have some great resources, like this podcast, do let me know: I'm new to this game!⁣✨ ⁣ Happy Friday, friends!⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #writerslife #research #worldwar2 @simon_scarrow #historicalfiction #writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #writing #author #authorsofinstagram #authorssupportingauthors #findmywritingcommunity #berlin #desklife
As a mother and a writer I often wonder about the As a mother and a writer I often wonder about the strange interplay between creating characters and raising children.⁣🌱 ⁣ I heard someone say the other day that rather than thinking about the people we can shape our children into, or assuming that we know who they are, we should approach them as we might a treasure hunt or an archeological dig: curious and full of excitement and, most of all, open to what we might find. ⁣🌱 ⁣ I'm forever surprised by my three little ones, pictured here, this morning, in preparation for picture day. I'm surprised by who they are and who they are becoming and how, day by day, they're changing. And how different they are from us as their parents and from each other.⁣🌱 ⁣ My characters sometimes go on a similar trajectory. I place them in a situation, I have a broad understanding of who they are, but much of the work of writing a novel is getting to know them and allowing them to evolve and change, scene by scene, and sometimes letting them go a little to see where they might take me and our story. ⁣🌱 ⁣ There is, of course, more control in writing: perhaps that is why it is so cathartic at times. In the end, I am their creator and I can guide them to where I want them to be. Though that kind of bossiness doesn't always lead to the best story. ⁣🌱 ⁣ With children, it is a more humbling process altogether. Besides conceiving them and birthing them and keeping them safe and well fed and offering them opportunities to thrive, they will become who they were meant to be quite apart from our intentions. And that is scary. And beautiful. And the most awesome creative act to witness. ⁣🌱 ⁣ Often, it's when they take me by surprise that I feel most challenged - and then most inspired. And I wonder how I can bring that to my fictional characters too. To allow them to evolve in a way that surprises me and the reader. To nurture them and then let them fly.⁣🌱 ⁣ This is all a bit of a ramble and there's no clear point that I want to make, except that for those of us who make art and make people, the parallels - and the differences - are pretty fascinating.⁣🌱 ⁣ with love, as ever, friends,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #artistslife #writerslife #momswhowrite
I gathered up my seven literary babies this mornin I gathered up my seven literary babies this morning and took a moment to think about the journey I've been on since 2014 when WHAT MILO SAW was published. See my previous video for a whistle stop tour of each novel.⁣✨ ⁣ It struck me that although each book is very different - I have adult and YA books in this pile and also my latest book under Nina Monroe which is set in America, looks at American issues and is classed as 'suspense'. But still, my preoccupations remain the same: ⁣ ✨I write about what it means to be a family - and how that's not always determined by biology.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about being an outsider and the desire to belong.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write lots about children and old people because I think that they often have the truest way of seeing the world.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about marriage and how hard it is to make it work day in, day out.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about motherhood over...and over...and over...and all the ways in which it is possible to be a mother.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about loss and grief.⁣ ⁣ ✨I tackle taboos and all the hard things: abuse in nursing homes; transracial adoption; illegal immigration; gender and sexual orientation; falling in love with the wrong person; a mother walking out on her young family; gun ownership; eating disorders; mental illness; surviving tragedy.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about what it means to be a human on this earth and why it's hard and beautiful all at once.⁣ And I try to offer some hope along the way, because we all need that. ⁣ Thanks for reading, friends - it means the world!⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia / Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #bookstack⁣ #books #booksofig #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #vlog #contemporaryfiction #whatmilosaw #thereturnofnorahwells #beforeiwasyours #youfoundme #wishbones #asfarasthestars #ya #yalit #writerslife #findmywritingcommunity @harpercollins360 @hachetteaus
✨Book Review!⁣✨ ⁣ After reading two amazin ✨Book Review!⁣✨ ⁣ After reading two amazing but pretty heavy going novels - the kind that leave you somewhat emotionally gutted - I turned to this charming, hugely funny and moving novel: EARLY MORNING RISING by @katherineheiny.⁣✨ ⁣ If you need something deeply uplifting and human and hopeful but also real (there's nothing polyannaish about the hope in this story), then this is the book for you.⁣✨ ⁣ We follow the life of Jane, an ordinary, flawed human like the rest of us. She starts the novel as a single, 2nd grade teacher (for those of you who are teachers, the set pieces in the classroom are so, so real and side-splittingly funny!) and we accompany her through the ups and downs of her love life and settling into the small town of Boyne City where everyone knows everyone else's business, to getting married and having kids of her own. Her reflections on motherhood are just as accurate and hilarious as the teaching scenes. ⁣✨ ⁣ Although the plot isn't one that demands you to turn the page to find out what happens next, Heiny makes you care for her characters SO much that you just can't stop reading. She makes even her most irritating and flawed characters somehow loveable. ✨⁣ ⁣ She reminded me of Anne Tyler in her ability to so brilliantly depict the details of everyday people and everyday life, with some Marina Lewycka thrown in for the quirky humour. Oddly, at times it felt very British in its humour - maybe because Heiny lived in London for a while.⁣✨ ⁣ I loved every moment of it and even ended up reading bits to my kids on a car journey the other day - my 2nd grader found the depictions of kids her age in their classroom setting totally hilarious and kept asking for more.⁣✨ ⁣ This feels like the perfect Pandemic read: spirit-lifting and spirit-affirming whilst not neglecting to show us the tough, real, sometimes ugly underbelly of life. You won't regret reading this.⁣✨ ⁣ Happy reading, friends, and let me know what books you're enjoying too, I'd love to know.⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia/Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #bookreview⁣ #earlymorningriser @aaknopf #bookish #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #books #booksofig #uplit #bookrecommendations #booklover #bookshelf #authorssupportingauthors
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Skye ( When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Skye (pictured here), I was preoccupied by the question of how she would see me as she grew up: whether she would understand my love of writing stories and how important I feel they are to the world; whether she would be proud of me. ⁣🌱 ⁣ I so, so wanted her to be proud of me.⁣🌱 ⁣ Which is funny, isn't it? For so many kids it's about them wanting to live up to their parents’ expectations. For me, it's always been the reverse. I'm proud of them just for being them, for being alive. But I long for my life, the person I am, as their mother, as a human, to live up to 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 expectations.🌱⁣ ⁣ To be honest, most days I feel like I fall short. There is so much more I want to be for them - as a mother and as a human. It's hard. Trying to be the person I want to be for my three little people so that they can feel inspired and brave and hopeful as they move into the world themselves. I feel like babies are born holding a spotlight aimed at their parents' weaknesses. ⁣There’s nowhere to hide. Maybe that's why I write about parenthood so much in my novels.🌱 ⁣ But some days, for a fleeting second, when my seven year old grabs a copy of my latest novel and sits in the sunshine on a rock and tries to read it, even though her reading level isn't quite up to it - and when she looks up at me with squinty eyes and says: 'You really wrote all these words, Mama?' and my heart does a little flip - I think that maybe, just maybe, for today, or for this second, I've done enough. And that enough isn't about doing it all or doing it perfectly or doing it right all the time but about simply choosing to do what we love and what we think is important in the world and showing that to them over and over in the hope that maybe they'll find their own thing to love and to contribute one day too.⁣🌱 ⁣ But goodness it's hard.⁣ Maybe that’s the point. 🌱 ⁣ With love, as ever, dear friends,⁣ ⁣ Virginia / Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #motherslife #motherhood⁣ #thechildrenssecret #authorslife #momswhowrite #momswhoread #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #authorscommunity #bookstagram #book #fallreads
I edited my first novel, WHAT MILO SAW, when I was I edited my first novel, WHAT MILO SAW, when I was pregnant with our first daughter. I now live a whole continent away and we have three little ones. As I've written and as the years have gone by my fiction has evolved but also my understanding of children and of parenthood.⁣🌱 ⁣ THE CHILDREN'S SECRET is an exploration of childhood and what happens to children when they get swept up into an adult world that they don't yet fully understand. ⁣🌱 ⁣ It's also about parenthood and how parents have as much to learn about their children - how brave and strong and vulnerable and 'other' from them they are. And that they should never, ever, be underestimated. They understand more and see more and feel more than we ever realise.⁣🌱 ⁣ The theme of children redeeming adults is one that runs through all my books but no more so than in this novel in which adults desperately need to get past their disagreements and to see their common humanity: something that kids seem to understand much more naturally than adults.⁣🌱 ⁣ Nothing - not thirteen years of a private school education or three years at Oxford or twelve years of teaching high school - has taught me as much about life and human nature and myself and the world, than being a mother. Raising my three little ones feels like taking a PhD in life every single day - only there are no books to lead the way and the exams are much harder! ⁣🌱 ⁣ I guess that's why I write novels. To make sense of it all. To try and show what small things I've learned. My attempt at a thesis.🌱 I hope you like THE CHILDREN'S SECRET. It's out now on Kindle, Audible and in Hardback. Do drop me a line when you've read it, I'd love to know what you think.⁣🌱 ⁣ With love, as ever,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 🌱 #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #familylife #parenthood #motherslife #momswhowrite #momswhoread #newhampshirelife #englishfamilyintheusa
When I moved to America I knew my writing would ch When I moved to America I knew my writing would change forever. I have, until now, been a contemporary fiction writer: that means my inspiration is drawn from my immediate surroundings. Until 2016, that was England. And then I found myself on a new continent, far from home, and I wondered whether I could write about here - about America: whether I would know it well enough; whether it would inspire me in the same way; whether readers would be okay with an English woman writing about their country.⁣✨ ⁣ Over the past five years, we've added two little ones to our family: they were both born in America and are American citizens. We have got used to a thousand and one American ways and words. This morning, I found myself sitting on the sidelines of a soccer field watching my little girl learning how to play - I became that most American of things: a soccer mom. ⁣✨ ⁣ And I did it. I wrote an American book - American in style and content and tone and setting. And I hope I did a good job. And I hope that maybe my outsider's perspective gave the story some energy and a freshness of perspective. Having to start a whole new life from scratch in a new country is hard but it really does make you feel and look at life in a deeper, richer way.✨⁣ ⁣ I will always be something of an outsider in the US but I've been blown away by the kindness and hospitality that my little family has received these past few years and I am deeply grateful for the many stories this continent has shared with me. ⁣✨ ⁣ Now back to my world of braids and diapers and pants and sidewalks and trunks and gas - and pizzas the size of the moon!⁣✨ ⁣ Hope you like the book. THE CHILDREN'S SECRET is out now.⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia/Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #makingitintheusa⁣ #enoshfamilyintheusa #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #catsofinstagram #catsofbookstagram #soccer #soccermom @newhampshirelove #newhampshirelife #americanlife
Curl up for a cosy September weekend with my lates Curl up for a cosy September weekend with my latest novel set in New Hampshire - in the fall. And what could be cozier or lovelier than New Hampshire in the fall, right?🍁 It’s full of suspense and family drama and takes place in the fictional, quintessentially New England town of Middlebrook.🍁 THE CHILDREN’S SECRET is out now in audio, on Kindle and of course in this beautiful, fall themed hardback.🍁 Happy fall, friends and happy reading.🍁 Virginia/Nina 🤍 🍁 #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #catsofinstagram #catsofbookstagram
Full disclosure: when I moved from the UK to the U Full disclosure: when I moved from the UK to the US five years ago, I did pack about 100 pens of a very specific type out of sheer fear that I wouldn't ever find a pen I liked to write with ever again once I'd crossed the Atlantic and that my career as a novelist would therefore be over. That's why I still have boxes and bins full of these V-balls! ⁣✏️ ⁣ I also packed dozens of my favourite @leuchtturm1917 notebooks. I know that the internet allows for international shipping but just in case the world imploded and I could no longer get hold of these exact notebooks, I had to be prepared, right?⁣✏️ ⁣ Anyone care to share one of their irrational, guilty writerisms? ⁣✏️ ⁣ Happy writing, friends,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ✏️ ⁣ #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #author #authorssupportingauthors #authorscommunity #stationary #pens #notebook #desklife #desksetup #writersofinstagram #writing #writingcommunity #writerslife #writersofinstagram #writersofig #writersofinsta #findmywritingcommunity @pilotpenusa @pilotpenuk @leuchtturm1917usa
🌊Book Review!⁣🌊 ⁣ At few weeks ago I wen 🌊Book Review!⁣🌊 ⁣ At few weeks ago I went to my local indie in need of something beautiful and gripping and heart and mind changing. I came home with ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by @charlottemcconaghy. See previous review for me waxing lyrical about how gorgeous this book is.⁣🌊 ⁣ I didn't want to be gluttonous so I read something else in between (see my review of LIBERTIE) but honestly, I hurried back as quickly as I could to McConaghy's debut: MIGRATIONS. I haven't stopped reading in the past few days and I know it sounds hyperbolic but I think she might just be my favourite writer of the moment. Which is handy because I'm always being asked that question and never have an answer - because how could I with so many books and authors out there? But still, she is wowing me like few other authors are.⁣🌊 ⁣ Her blend of deeply lyrical and poetic writing with incredibly crafted characters and near perfect plots that always leave me surprised and reeling and awestruck, alongside her deep exploration of the environment and climate change (without it coming across as preachy - it just makes you feel deeply, deeply sad), makes her, in my view, one of the best writers writing today.⁣🌊 ⁣ This novel is a love story - to the disappearing natural world and a love story between two beautiful and damaged people: Franny & Niall. It's about a woman, broken by grief, who follow the final migration of three arctic terns: the bravest animals in the world. I honestly won't look at birds in the same way again.⁣🌊 ⁣ I've been recommending McConaghy's book so widely that I fear people will think I'm on commission - but seriously, her books are beautiful and perfect and true and, well, just drop everything and get a copy and start reading. You won't regret it.⁣🌊 ⁣ Happy reading, friends!⁣🌊 ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ 🌊 ⁣ #bookreview #migrations @flatiron_books #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookish #book #bookofinstagram #booksofinsta #bookstagrammer #climatechange #climatecrisis #authorssupportingauthors #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #authorcommunity

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I'm finally writing 'The Scary Book' - the book my I'm finally writing 'The Scary Book' - the book my agent has been on at me to write for about 10 years, a historical novel and I feel like a very different kind of writer already.⁣✨ ⁣ A friend summed up the difference between being a contemporary fiction writer and a historical fiction writer as the difference between being a journalist and a historian. I think that sums it up pretty well. Until now, I've loved my status as a journalist: interviewing everyday people in the here and now about issues that relate to my novels. Observing daily life. Drawing from what is around me.⁣✨ ⁣ For this novel, I'm having to be a historian, and it's a bit scary because I don't really see myself as a historian (I know...I know…Growth Mindset...). Anyway, fortunately for me, there are some awesome resources out there, including this lovely British produced podcast I found called Travels Through Time. Today, I learned lots about the cold, cold winter in Berlin in 1939 and how Berliners were experiencing that strange time when war had been declared but nothing much was happening.⁣✨ ⁣ If you're a writer of historical fiction and have some great resources, like this podcast, do let me know: I'm new to this game!⁣✨ ⁣ Happy Friday, friends!⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #writerslife #research #worldwar2 @simon_scarrow #historicalfiction #writingcommunity #writersofinstagram #writing #author #authorsofinstagram #authorssupportingauthors #findmywritingcommunity #berlin #desklife
As a mother and a writer I often wonder about the As a mother and a writer I often wonder about the strange interplay between creating characters and raising children.⁣🌱 ⁣ I heard someone say the other day that rather than thinking about the people we can shape our children into, or assuming that we know who they are, we should approach them as we might a treasure hunt or an archeological dig: curious and full of excitement and, most of all, open to what we might find. ⁣🌱 ⁣ I'm forever surprised by my three little ones, pictured here, this morning, in preparation for picture day. I'm surprised by who they are and who they are becoming and how, day by day, they're changing. And how different they are from us as their parents and from each other.⁣🌱 ⁣ My characters sometimes go on a similar trajectory. I place them in a situation, I have a broad understanding of who they are, but much of the work of writing a novel is getting to know them and allowing them to evolve and change, scene by scene, and sometimes letting them go a little to see where they might take me and our story. ⁣🌱 ⁣ There is, of course, more control in writing: perhaps that is why it is so cathartic at times. In the end, I am their creator and I can guide them to where I want them to be. Though that kind of bossiness doesn't always lead to the best story. ⁣🌱 ⁣ With children, it is a more humbling process altogether. Besides conceiving them and birthing them and keeping them safe and well fed and offering them opportunities to thrive, they will become who they were meant to be quite apart from our intentions. And that is scary. And beautiful. And the most awesome creative act to witness. ⁣🌱 ⁣ Often, it's when they take me by surprise that I feel most challenged - and then most inspired. And I wonder how I can bring that to my fictional characters too. To allow them to evolve in a way that surprises me and the reader. To nurture them and then let them fly.⁣🌱 ⁣ This is all a bit of a ramble and there's no clear point that I want to make, except that for those of us who make art and make people, the parallels - and the differences - are pretty fascinating.⁣🌱 ⁣ with love, as ever, friends,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #artistslife #writerslife #momswhowrite
I gathered up my seven literary babies this mornin I gathered up my seven literary babies this morning and took a moment to think about the journey I've been on since 2014 when WHAT MILO SAW was published. See my previous video for a whistle stop tour of each novel.⁣✨ ⁣ It struck me that although each book is very different - I have adult and YA books in this pile and also my latest book under Nina Monroe which is set in America, looks at American issues and is classed as 'suspense'. But still, my preoccupations remain the same: ⁣ ✨I write about what it means to be a family - and how that's not always determined by biology.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about being an outsider and the desire to belong.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write lots about children and old people because I think that they often have the truest way of seeing the world.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about marriage and how hard it is to make it work day in, day out.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about motherhood over...and over...and over...and all the ways in which it is possible to be a mother.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about loss and grief.⁣ ⁣ ✨I tackle taboos and all the hard things: abuse in nursing homes; transracial adoption; illegal immigration; gender and sexual orientation; falling in love with the wrong person; a mother walking out on her young family; gun ownership; eating disorders; mental illness; surviving tragedy.⁣ ⁣ ✨I write about what it means to be a human on this earth and why it's hard and beautiful all at once.⁣ And I try to offer some hope along the way, because we all need that. ⁣ Thanks for reading, friends - it means the world!⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia / Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ ⁣ #bookstack⁣ #books #booksofig #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #vlog #contemporaryfiction #whatmilosaw #thereturnofnorahwells #beforeiwasyours #youfoundme #wishbones #asfarasthestars #ya #yalit #writerslife #findmywritingcommunity @harpercollins360 @hachetteaus
✨Book Review!⁣✨ ⁣ After reading two amazin ✨Book Review!⁣✨ ⁣ After reading two amazing but pretty heavy going novels - the kind that leave you somewhat emotionally gutted - I turned to this charming, hugely funny and moving novel: EARLY MORNING RISING by @katherineheiny.⁣✨ ⁣ If you need something deeply uplifting and human and hopeful but also real (there's nothing polyannaish about the hope in this story), then this is the book for you.⁣✨ ⁣ We follow the life of Jane, an ordinary, flawed human like the rest of us. She starts the novel as a single, 2nd grade teacher (for those of you who are teachers, the set pieces in the classroom are so, so real and side-splittingly funny!) and we accompany her through the ups and downs of her love life and settling into the small town of Boyne City where everyone knows everyone else's business, to getting married and having kids of her own. Her reflections on motherhood are just as accurate and hilarious as the teaching scenes. ⁣✨ ⁣ Although the plot isn't one that demands you to turn the page to find out what happens next, Heiny makes you care for her characters SO much that you just can't stop reading. She makes even her most irritating and flawed characters somehow loveable. ✨⁣ ⁣ She reminded me of Anne Tyler in her ability to so brilliantly depict the details of everyday people and everyday life, with some Marina Lewycka thrown in for the quirky humour. Oddly, at times it felt very British in its humour - maybe because Heiny lived in London for a while.⁣✨ ⁣ I loved every moment of it and even ended up reading bits to my kids on a car journey the other day - my 2nd grader found the depictions of kids her age in their classroom setting totally hilarious and kept asking for more.⁣✨ ⁣ This feels like the perfect Pandemic read: spirit-lifting and spirit-affirming whilst not neglecting to show us the tough, real, sometimes ugly underbelly of life. You won't regret reading this.⁣✨ ⁣ Happy reading, friends, and let me know what books you're enjoying too, I'd love to know.⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia/Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #bookreview⁣ #earlymorningriser @aaknopf #bookish #booksofinstagram #bookstagram #books #booksofig #uplit #bookrecommendations #booklover #bookshelf #authorssupportingauthors
When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Skye ( When I was pregnant with my first daughter, Skye (pictured here), I was preoccupied by the question of how she would see me as she grew up: whether she would understand my love of writing stories and how important I feel they are to the world; whether she would be proud of me. ⁣🌱 ⁣ I so, so wanted her to be proud of me.⁣🌱 ⁣ Which is funny, isn't it? For so many kids it's about them wanting to live up to their parents’ expectations. For me, it's always been the reverse. I'm proud of them just for being them, for being alive. But I long for my life, the person I am, as their mother, as a human, to live up to 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 expectations.🌱⁣ ⁣ To be honest, most days I feel like I fall short. There is so much more I want to be for them - as a mother and as a human. It's hard. Trying to be the person I want to be for my three little people so that they can feel inspired and brave and hopeful as they move into the world themselves. I feel like babies are born holding a spotlight aimed at their parents' weaknesses. ⁣There’s nowhere to hide. Maybe that's why I write about parenthood so much in my novels.🌱 ⁣ But some days, for a fleeting second, when my seven year old grabs a copy of my latest novel and sits in the sunshine on a rock and tries to read it, even though her reading level isn't quite up to it - and when she looks up at me with squinty eyes and says: 'You really wrote all these words, Mama?' and my heart does a little flip - I think that maybe, just maybe, for today, or for this second, I've done enough. And that enough isn't about doing it all or doing it perfectly or doing it right all the time but about simply choosing to do what we love and what we think is important in the world and showing that to them over and over in the hope that maybe they'll find their own thing to love and to contribute one day too.⁣🌱 ⁣ But goodness it's hard.⁣ Maybe that’s the point. 🌱 ⁣ With love, as ever, dear friends,⁣ ⁣ Virginia / Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #motherslife #motherhood⁣ #thechildrenssecret #authorslife #momswhowrite #momswhoread #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #authorscommunity #bookstagram #book #fallreads
I edited my first novel, WHAT MILO SAW, when I was I edited my first novel, WHAT MILO SAW, when I was pregnant with our first daughter. I now live a whole continent away and we have three little ones. As I've written and as the years have gone by my fiction has evolved but also my understanding of children and of parenthood.⁣🌱 ⁣ THE CHILDREN'S SECRET is an exploration of childhood and what happens to children when they get swept up into an adult world that they don't yet fully understand. ⁣🌱 ⁣ It's also about parenthood and how parents have as much to learn about their children - how brave and strong and vulnerable and 'other' from them they are. And that they should never, ever, be underestimated. They understand more and see more and feel more than we ever realise.⁣🌱 ⁣ The theme of children redeeming adults is one that runs through all my books but no more so than in this novel in which adults desperately need to get past their disagreements and to see their common humanity: something that kids seem to understand much more naturally than adults.⁣🌱 ⁣ Nothing - not thirteen years of a private school education or three years at Oxford or twelve years of teaching high school - has taught me as much about life and human nature and myself and the world, than being a mother. Raising my three little ones feels like taking a PhD in life every single day - only there are no books to lead the way and the exams are much harder! ⁣🌱 ⁣ I guess that's why I write novels. To make sense of it all. To try and show what small things I've learned. My attempt at a thesis.🌱 I hope you like THE CHILDREN'S SECRET. It's out now on Kindle, Audible and in Hardback. Do drop me a line when you've read it, I'd love to know what you think.⁣🌱 ⁣ With love, as ever,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 🌱 #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #familylife #parenthood #motherslife #momswhowrite #momswhoread #newhampshirelife #englishfamilyintheusa
When I moved to America I knew my writing would ch When I moved to America I knew my writing would change forever. I have, until now, been a contemporary fiction writer: that means my inspiration is drawn from my immediate surroundings. Until 2016, that was England. And then I found myself on a new continent, far from home, and I wondered whether I could write about here - about America: whether I would know it well enough; whether it would inspire me in the same way; whether readers would be okay with an English woman writing about their country.⁣✨ ⁣ Over the past five years, we've added two little ones to our family: they were both born in America and are American citizens. We have got used to a thousand and one American ways and words. This morning, I found myself sitting on the sidelines of a soccer field watching my little girl learning how to play - I became that most American of things: a soccer mom. ⁣✨ ⁣ And I did it. I wrote an American book - American in style and content and tone and setting. And I hope I did a good job. And I hope that maybe my outsider's perspective gave the story some energy and a freshness of perspective. Having to start a whole new life from scratch in a new country is hard but it really does make you feel and look at life in a deeper, richer way.✨⁣ ⁣ I will always be something of an outsider in the US but I've been blown away by the kindness and hospitality that my little family has received these past few years and I am deeply grateful for the many stories this continent has shared with me. ⁣✨ ⁣ Now back to my world of braids and diapers and pants and sidewalks and trunks and gas - and pizzas the size of the moon!⁣✨ ⁣ Hope you like the book. THE CHILDREN'S SECRET is out now.⁣✨ ⁣ Virginia/Nina⁣🤍 ⁣ ⁣ #makingitintheusa⁣ #enoshfamilyintheusa #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #catsofinstagram #catsofbookstagram #soccer #soccermom @newhampshirelove #newhampshirelife #americanlife
Curl up for a cosy September weekend with my lates Curl up for a cosy September weekend with my latest novel set in New Hampshire - in the fall. And what could be cozier or lovelier than New Hampshire in the fall, right?🍁 It’s full of suspense and family drama and takes place in the fictional, quintessentially New England town of Middlebrook.🍁 THE CHILDREN’S SECRET is out now in audio, on Kindle and of course in this beautiful, fall themed hardback.🍁 Happy fall, friends and happy reading.🍁 Virginia/Nina 🤍 🍁 #thechildrenssecret #ninamonroe #newrelease #fallreads @crookedlanebooks @dkwliteraryagency @littlebookcafe #bookstagram #books #bookstack #booksofig #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #writersofinstagram #writerscommunity #septemberreads #weekendreads #suspense #suspensebooks #catsofinstagram #catsofbookstagram
Full disclosure: when I moved from the UK to the U Full disclosure: when I moved from the UK to the US five years ago, I did pack about 100 pens of a very specific type out of sheer fear that I wouldn't ever find a pen I liked to write with ever again once I'd crossed the Atlantic and that my career as a novelist would therefore be over. That's why I still have boxes and bins full of these V-balls! ⁣✏️ ⁣ I also packed dozens of my favourite @leuchtturm1917 notebooks. I know that the internet allows for international shipping but just in case the world imploded and I could no longer get hold of these exact notebooks, I had to be prepared, right?⁣✏️ ⁣ Anyone care to share one of their irrational, guilty writerisms? ⁣✏️ ⁣ Happy writing, friends,⁣ ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ✏️ ⁣ #authorslife #authorsofinstagram #author #authorssupportingauthors #authorscommunity #stationary #pens #notebook #desklife #desksetup #writersofinstagram #writing #writingcommunity #writerslife #writersofinstagram #writersofig #writersofinsta #findmywritingcommunity @pilotpenusa @pilotpenuk @leuchtturm1917usa
🌊Book Review!⁣🌊 ⁣ At few weeks ago I wen 🌊Book Review!⁣🌊 ⁣ At few weeks ago I went to my local indie in need of something beautiful and gripping and heart and mind changing. I came home with ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES by @charlottemcconaghy. See previous review for me waxing lyrical about how gorgeous this book is.⁣🌊 ⁣ I didn't want to be gluttonous so I read something else in between (see my review of LIBERTIE) but honestly, I hurried back as quickly as I could to McConaghy's debut: MIGRATIONS. I haven't stopped reading in the past few days and I know it sounds hyperbolic but I think she might just be my favourite writer of the moment. Which is handy because I'm always being asked that question and never have an answer - because how could I with so many books and authors out there? But still, she is wowing me like few other authors are.⁣🌊 ⁣ Her blend of deeply lyrical and poetic writing with incredibly crafted characters and near perfect plots that always leave me surprised and reeling and awestruck, alongside her deep exploration of the environment and climate change (without it coming across as preachy - it just makes you feel deeply, deeply sad), makes her, in my view, one of the best writers writing today.⁣🌊 ⁣ This novel is a love story - to the disappearing natural world and a love story between two beautiful and damaged people: Franny & Niall. It's about a woman, broken by grief, who follow the final migration of three arctic terns: the bravest animals in the world. I honestly won't look at birds in the same way again.⁣🌊 ⁣ I've been recommending McConaghy's book so widely that I fear people will think I'm on commission - but seriously, her books are beautiful and perfect and true and, well, just drop everything and get a copy and start reading. You won't regret it.⁣🌊 ⁣ Happy reading, friends!⁣🌊 ⁣ V/N⁣🤍 ⁣ 🌊 ⁣ #bookreview #migrations @flatiron_books #bookrecommendations #bookstagram #bookish #book #bookofinstagram #booksofinsta #bookstagrammer #climatechange #climatecrisis #authorssupportingauthors #authorsofinstagram #authorsofig #authorcommunity

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