Diana talks to Marius Gabriel

Hi Marius, it is lovely to have a chance to chat with you like this!!
First things first I am sure there is a question that you have always longed to be asked. Now is the chance. Ask your own question and answer it!

Q: Is it awfully hard being a dazzling genius?
A: Oh no, I take it in my stride. (Lolololol!!!)

If your latest book TAKE ME TO YOUR HEART AGAIN was adapted into a TV show or a film, who would you like to play the lead role?
A: Well, there are three lead parts, and I’d have Anna Maxwell Martin, Rachael Stirling and Sophie Rundle!  (Nice one effendi! I can picture them all in the roles)

(Click here to access Diana's review of this splendid book!)



What made you choose this genre?
A: I am very interested in the period (1930s to 1950s)

How do you get ideas for plots and characters?
A: All three characters are modelled on my mum. (That is really interesting! What a wonderfully complex character she must have been!)If, as a one off, (and you could guarantee publication!) you could write anything you wanted, is there another genre you would love to work with and do you already have a budding plot line in mind?
A: Oh, without a doubt I’d write a mind-bending Science Fiction novel. I love SciFi. And no, I don’t have a plot cos I’m rubbish at writing SciFi.
Was becoming a writer a conscious decision or something that you drifted into (or even something so compelling that it could not be denied?) How old were you when you first started to write seriously.
A: I was about twelve. I never really wanted to do anything else, though I valiantly had a go at lecturing and Law. (Gosh!!)

Marmite? Love it or hate it?
A: Love Bovril, does that help? (Mmmmmm. Me too!)

I promise I won’t tell them the answer to this, but when you are writing, who is more important, your family or your characters?
A: I don’t trust you not to betray me. (Wise man!!)


Other than writing full time, what would be your dream job?
A: Pope. (What I said before. That!)

Coffee or tea? Red or white?
A: Coffee. Red.

How much of your work is planned before you start? Do you have a full draft or let it find its way?
A: I have not so much a full draft as a skeleton outline. I know what major story points I want to reach, but the episodes in between unfold day by day.

If you had free choice over the font your book is printed in, what font/fonts would you choose?
A: Times New Roman. Funnily enough. (Ditto. But I won't tell my alter ego that!)

Imagine that you could get hold of any original source document. What would it be?
A: One of Shakespeare’s original playbooks for a major character like Lear or Othello. (GOSH! Me too!)

Have any of your characters ever shocked you and gone off on their own adventure leaving you scratching your head??? If so how did you cope with that!?
A: Oh, all the time. Writing wouldn’t be much fun if that didn’t happen!

How much research do you do and do you ever go on research trips?
A: I do a lot of research, in books, on the internet, and on trips. Usually many months.

Fiction authors have to contend with real characters invading our stories. Are there any ‘real’ characters you have been tempted to prematurely kill off or ignore because you just don’t like them or they spoil the plot?
A: Not sure I understand the question. You mean, like Tony Blair? (Good example!!)
Are you prepared to go away from the known facts for the sake of the story and if so how do you get around this?
A: I try hard to stick to the facts, but of course I have my own interpretation of the emotions and motivations that lie behind them. I distrust most “official versions.”

Do you find that the lines between fact and fiction sometimes become blurred?
A: No. Yes. (Pardon??)

Have you ever totally hated or fallen in love with one of your characters?
A: I love them all. (So do your readers)

What do you enjoy reading for pleasure?
A: I love almost anything that is well-written and interesting. Exceptions are fantasy novels set in worlds where “anything goes” and self-published poetry. (...and I thought you were going to say Diana's Facebook Statuses. Disappointed face!)
What drink would you recommend drinking whilst reading your latest book?
A: A nice pot of tea (with some custard creams). (OK OK! I know I forgot to send you any custard creams last year. My bad. Sorry!!)

I hope this makes up for my oversight!

Last but not least... favourite author?
A: Too many to pick out one, Diana. Ya oughta know better than that! (It is easier for us. We just say Marius Gabriel!!)

A little about Marius
Author's page and books  - click on the link to follow him!!

Marius Gabriel
 

Whilst looking through Marius's biography I found one of his books I had never read before!! The Original Sin. How have I missed that???

© Diana Milne January 2017 © Marius Gabriel January 2017

Diana Reviews Take Me To Your Heart Again by Marius Gabriel

Diana Milne Reviews Take Me To Your Heart Again by Marius Gabriel. The author has offered a giveaway to one lucky winner. To be in with a chance of winning this amazing novel, simply leave a comment below or on our Facebook page. The winner will be drawn on 8th August 2016. Good luck!

Tensions between three sisters, divided by life and love, are about to spill over into all-out conflict.
It is 1942 and the world is at war. The eldest of the Redcliffe sisters, Isobel, impulsive and ideological, strives to make herself heard in a world distracted by violence. But her ambitious new path is strewn with obstacles, not least a private scandal that threatens to become public. Optimist Chiara has had to grow up fast, to set aside teenage dreams and make way for the unexpected realities of adulthood—but who can she count on for help? Meanwhile Felicity has challenges of a more spiritual nature: will her journey of self-discovery lead her away from the convent she thought was her calling?
Separated by distance and war, Isobel, Chiara and Felicity must learn to confront life’s challenges with passion, strength—and unity. Because family is the tie that binds tightest of all.
This is the second title in the Redcliffe Sisters series and follows on from Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye.

I have read many books by Marius Gabriel (sorry Mr G! I haven’t had time to review them all yet - life gets in the way of good intentions) and  all of them have been enjoyable and engrossing from page one, but this one really stood out and I read it in about a day and a half, barely stopping to eat and sleep.

The first thing you notice is the cover and the careful choice of the period photo and the colour, together with the excellent use of unusual fonts, set the tone for a compelling and engaging story.
The book is part two of a trilogy, but would easily work as a ‘stand alone’ book and although what happened in book one is made known to the reader, it is not done in an invasive way and just flows naturally as part of the story, not as pages of tedious repetition that would be boring or unnecessary to readers of Wish Me Luck. In this book we meet again the Redcliffe sisters, three young women as different as chalk, cheese and blue paint, who despite their differences have a solid core of love, tested to the limit by the vagaries of war and each girl’s actions.

Gabriel is a master of his craft – an extraordinarily gifted wordsmith and a meticulous researcher. Hours of study must have gone into ensuring every aspect of this book to be historically accurate.  I am in awe at the amount of old photos and documents Gabriel must have pored over, let alone visiting the places he writes about so that he can paint word pictures enabling us to see the scenes portrayed in the book.
The opening chapter hits with the power of a left hook. Not only is Gabriel a dab hand at descriptions, his dialogue flows naturally and his understanding and depiction of emotions show a rarely paralleled mastery.
“And a garret suited her mood. She didn’t want to see anybody outside of work, didn’t want to have to entertain or be entertained, didn’t want room to expand...
“To another woman, the stone walls of the attic might seem bleak. To her they were a fortification. She was safe up here, walled off from the world, not needing anything and not needed by anybody.” 
Mr. Gabriel’s knowledge of Cairo and London brings those wonderful and exotic cities to life and without giving too much of the story away, the depiction of an air raid in London and a riot in Cairo were so vividly realistic, that I felt caught up in the terror and violence.
Occasional flashes of Gabriel’s wonderful sense of humour come across so vividly, “Our leaders have a touching idea that Rommel is exhausted and will pull back at the last minute to rest. In my opinion, That’s like hoping a man will pull back and rest when a girl’s got her knickers off and her legs open.”
I only have one complaint!! Book three is not out yet! Mr. Gabriel. Hurry up! I need my fix!!

About the author: Marius Gabriel served his author apprenticeship as a student at Newcastle University in the North of England, where, to finance his postgraduate research, he wrote thirty-three steamy Mills & Boon romances under a pseudonym. His identity as a man had to be kept secret until he turned to longer fiction under his own name. Gabriel is the author of eight sagas and historical novels, including the bestsellers The Mask of Time, The Original Sin and The Seventh Moon, and was once accused by Cosmopolitan magazine of ‘keeping you reading while your dinner burns’. He very seldom burns his own, however, being an enthusiastic cook, as well as an artist and a musician. Born in South Africa in 1954, he has lived and worked in many countries, and now divides his time between London and Cairo. He has three grown-up children ... and is a damned good fellow with a wonderfully wicked sense of humour and a good friend! (This last sentence is not part of the official biography!)
Amazon UK
Amazon US


© Diana Milne – aka d.arcadian, letterpress seller extraordinaire, genius, entrepreneur and author of various To Do lists.

Anna Reviews: The Seventh Moon

The Seventh Moon by Marius Gabriel

Reviewed by Anna Belfrage

See below for information about the giveaway!

Set a book on the Malay Peninsula in 1941, and most readers will understand they’re in for quite the journey into the darkness and horrors of war. Add to the location a beautiful Eurasian woman and her young child, forced to flee to Singapore due to the advancing Japanese, and personally I am quite hooked.

It is late in 1941 when Francine’s English husband orders her to take their daughter to Singapore. He cannot accompany her – he has a mine to run – and besides, he is quite convinced the British soldiers will soon have the Japanese on the run. Francine is not as convinced: her Chinese relatives speak in hushed voices of an unstoppable war machine, of atrocities on a huge scale. But she is young and  intimidated by her husband, so when he tells her to stop worrying and get going she does, having wrested a promise from him that he’ll meet up with them early in January.

Singapore is in chaos. Mr. Gabriel paints a vivid picture of the situation in Singapore in the weeks prior to its fall, complete with racist British who sniff at having a “half breed” staying with them at Raffles. Bombings, panicked troops, people attempting to find berths home, Japanese planes that bomb the few vessels that escape, blackouts, hours spent in shelters – and as an utter contrast, the elegant and hoity-toity New Year’s celebration at Raffles, where Francine is wooed by recently wounded, severely disillusioned, Clive Napier.

Francine’s husband never comes to Singapore. She is forced to leave Raffles – British people need her room, and she is brutally evicted to fend for herself and her daughter, Ruth. Luckily, Clive is there to help her, and for some weeks more Francine and her daughter can cling to some semblance of civilised life in a world turned upside down by war.

Ultimately, Francine and Clive must flee for their lives, ending up in Sarawak. Ruth is severely ill, they’ve lost almost all their belongings, and the Japanese are a day’s march away. Neither Clive nor Francine have any illusions as to their fate should they be captured, and the only way to evade the Japanese is by trekking straight across Sarawak, a perilous and exhausting journey. Impossible to do when burdened with a young, ailing child, and so Francine is forced to make an agonised decision.

We fast forward to the late 1960s. Francine Lawrence is a successful businesswoman, a person who lives a compartmentalised life while flitting from one part of her business empire to the other. She is  cool and unemotional – a woman in control of her life and destiny. A very lonely woman, still struggling with the consequences of the decision she took close to thirty years earlier. Enter Sakura Ueda, a young damaged woman who potentially could be Francine’s daughter. Very, very potentially, especially seeing as Francine has credible proof Ruth is dead…

With Sakura, violence and war yet again enter Francine’s life. Once again, she is obliged to call on Clive for help, despite not having spoken to him in close to two decades. Once again, she must return to Asia to lay her demons at rest.

What happens next is a page turner. To reveal the twisting, convoluted plot would be to do future readers a disservice, but let’s just say it is fast paced, pushing Francine and her companions well beyond human endurance. Set against the backdrop of the expanding war in Vietnam, the resulting chaos in the neighbouring countries and the seedier aspects of the drug trade, the reader hurtles along from one location to the other, accompanying Francine and company deeper and deeper into the war-torn interior of Indochina.

The Seventh Moon is a plot-driven rather than character-based novel. At times, I would have wanted some more introspection, moments of reflection – if nothing else as a welcome relief to all the action. Because of the initial chapters set in the 1940s, the reader has insight into the complexity of Francine’s personality, thereby understanding why she behaves as she does. Sakura, however, remains an enigma: the product of horrific experiences, she has difficulties relating to other people – and to this reader. I suspect, however, that this is intentional: Mr. Gabriel wants to keep the reader wondering about who – and what – Sakura is. Fortunately, these two women have somewhat more accessible male co-protagonists, first and foremost Clive, but also Vietnam veteran Clay Munro, who in many ways I perceive to be the most developed of the various points of view in the novel.

The Seventh Moon’s true strength lies in Mr. Gabriel’s prose. Effortlessly, he transports us to the exotic settings of Asia or to the murkier parts of New York. Elegantly, he describes the political background, giving enough context for the reader to understand, not so much as to bog the story down. I was particularly impressed by the descriptions of the first weeks of 1942 in Singapore, complete with bombings, dead, blood and grime – but also tender moments in the tropical night, little instances of normality in a world that was crumbling fast. And talking about tender moments, Mr. Gabriel gets a five-star rating for the beautifully written intimate scene rather late in the book.

At times, I struggled with the formatting: The Seventh Moon is written in long, long chapters with no breaks in paragraphs – not even when the point of view shifts. This detracted from the overall reading experience. I would also have wanted a less abrupt and more conclusive ending – in fact, after all the emotional upheaval Mr. Gabriel put me through, I feel entitled to some closure, but that may be due to a personal preference for tidy (and happy) endings, while other readers may find things end just as they should. Having said that, The Seventh Moon proved quite impossible to put down, and for those in search of some hours of nail-biting excitement, I can more than recommend this book!

The author has so generously offered a copy of The Seventh Moon for a freebie! If you would like a chance to win, simply comment below or at this blog entry's associated Facebook thread. 

About the author

Marius Gabriel is the author of six books, most of which are set in the 19^th or early 20^th century. He is fascinated by historical settings and has lived in various exotic locations, which leads to him enjoying combining the two. At present, Mr. Gabriel is living in Cairo where he is working on a seventh book. Find out more about Marius Gabriel by visiting his Amazon page. The Seventh Moon is available on Amazon and Amazon UK.

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Anna Belfrage is the author of seven published books, all part of The Graham Saga. Set in the 17th century, the books tell the story of Matthew Graham and his time-travelling wife, Alex Lind. Anna can be found on Amazon, Twitter, Facebook and on her website. If you would like Anna to review your book, please see our submissions tab above.