Read my thoughts on writing ‘Book 2’ in my final outing as guest blogger on Nicole Alexander’s website. Thanks for having me, Nicole!
http://nicolealexander.com.au/2010/09/sara-foster-on-the-difficult-2nd-novel/col-md-2
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Book Group Questions for Come Back to Me
1. Explore the different ways that the title theme of ‘Come Back to Me’ resonates throughout the book.
2. What do you think of Alex’s dilemma and choices? Can a person be truly in love with two people at the same time?
3. The changing nature of relationships between parents and children features prominently in the book. Discuss the nature and complexities of adult children’s relationships with their parents.
4. Each character goes on some kind of figurative journey within the novel. By the end, what do you think they each have learned, and how might it change them?
5. Different types of loss feature heavily in the novel. Which types of loss stand out most for you? How have these losses shaped the characters’ lives?
6. Each character in the book has personality traits that appear to be holding them back in life. Can you identify them? Do they change during the course of the story? If so, how?
7. Explore Alex’s motivations and experiences in the story. How much is he a victim of circumstance, and how much does he bring on himself through his decisions?
8. Where did your sympathies lie during the course of the novel, and why?
9. **NEW** At one point, Chloe asks: ‘What had she done to cause everything that was happening to her?’ This may be a harsh question to direct at herself, but it is an understandable one. Discuss how the notion of responsibility plays out in the novel, and the extent to which the characters are responsible for themselves or each others’ actions or reactions.
10. **NEW** Chloe, Alex and Julia/Amy have all pushed memories away or suppressed them in order to get on with their lives. Explore why they have done this, and what it means for them.
11. **NEW** Towards the end of the book, Margaret suggests to Chloe, ‘…maybe Alex is trying to protect you…’ Do you agree with this statement? Is that what Alex was trying to do?
12. **NEW** Throughout the book, there are lots of references to opportunities for connection between the characters, opportunities that might not come round again, or moments when they have to choose whether to speak or to withhold information. Can you identify these, and what do you think of the choices each character makes?col-md-2
Book Group Questions for Beneath the Shadows
1. The past is still too close to us… How does the past infiltrate and affect the present in Beneath the Shadows?
2. Grace is driven by her need for resolution: did you see this as an obstacle or a necessity for her?
3. Ghosts, omens, clocks that stop and start by themselves – is there a supernatural element in Roseby, or was it all just a figment of Grace’s imagination?
4. Windows and reflections are strong symbols in the novel. How do you interpret their significance?
5. Not only is Grace reading Rebecca, but throughout the book the classic novel is alluded to in others ways too. Consider these parallels, and what they contribute to the story.
6. By the end, the mystery of Adam’s disappearance is resolved. Yet Adam didn’t tell Grace where he’d put their money, his relationship with Jenny, or the existence of the cellar. How much do you think the reader gets to know the ‘real’ Adam?
7. How did you interpret Grace’s strange dreams? Were they warnings, her subconscious trying to process her fears, or something else?
8. How important is Annabel to the story? What role does she play?
9. Is Meredith a villain or a victim?
10. By going through their belongings and their memories, Grace seems to be trying to understand who Adam’s grandparents were. How far can she succeed, do you think? And why is this so important to her?col-md-2
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
A LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME
I live in Perth, Western Australia, with my husband, two daughters, three cats called Missy, Ruby and Cocoa, a bearded dragon called Sunny and Luna the cavoodle.
Before I was a writer I was a book editor, working in-house at HarperCollins UK for a few years and then going freelance. I have edited and proofread well over 100 books, fiction and non-fiction, including novels by Paullina Simons and Liane Moriarty.
My favourite psychological suspense thriller writers are Lisa Jewell and Heather Gudenkauf. Other favourite authors include Maggie O’Farrell, Toni Morrison, Nicci French, Sara Gruen, Alice Walker, Maya Angelou, Wendy James, Kate Morton, Liane Moriarty and Jodi Picoult and Taylor Jenkins-Reid.
My favourite psychological suspense novels are The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides Sister by Rosamund Lupton, and Beneath the Skin by Nicci French. Fave books in other genres include The Secret River by Kate Grenville, Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Light Between Oceans by ML Stedman, Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins-Reid, The Shifting Fog by Kate Morton, and After You’d Gone by Maggie O’Farrell. The list goes on and on.
My favourite poetry collection is The Self-Completing Tree by Dorothy Livesay and my favourite poems are ‘The Peace of Wild Things’ and ‘What We Need is Here’ by Wendell Berry.
I was one of the original editors of the Kids’ Night In book series, which has been raising money for War Child since 2003.
I’m a huge fan of dystopian fiction, and studied the genre for my PhD work on maternal representations in dystopian fiction with young adult heroines. My favourites include The Hunger Games series, Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison, and Pure by Julianna Baggott.
As a kid, in addition to devouring Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton books, I loved the Sue Barton nurse stories and Gerald Durrell’s animal adventures. Later on I read everything written by the Brontes, and devoured the dark thrillers of Lois Duncan and Christopher Pike.
I was born and raised in England, but I’ve always had family connections to Australia, and we visited the east coast a few times during my childhood. My introduction to Australian literature was reading All the Rivers Run by Nancy Cato, and after that I wanted to be Delie Gordon for quite a while. In 1999 I made sure I got to stand at the wheel of the Philadelphia paddle steamer when we visited the Murray River region.
My first pop concert, aged 12, was a Stock Aitken and Waterman event featuring my first love Jason Donovan. I was on a high for weeks afterwards. Little did I know that twenty years later I would end up editing his autobiography.
I love marine animals, and I’m a keen snorkeler and sometime scuba diver. I’ve played with baby sea lions, penguins and marine iguanas in the Galapagos and scuba-dived with Galapagos reef sharks and hammerhead sharks. I’ve glided with manta rays in Coral Bay (WA) and the Similan Islands in Thailand, encountered huge potato cod and graceful minke whales on the Great Barrier Reef, and swum with the mighty whale sharks of Ningaloo. I’ve experienced the absolute joy of being surrounded by wild dolphins in New Zealand and WA waters, and once had the very special experience of a dolphin ‘buzzing’ me while I was pregnant (using concentrated echolocation to ‘see’ the baby).
In 2011 I went to Japan while researching Shallow Breath, and visited Taiji, the town famous for its horrific dolphin drives. I was only there for two days, and thankfully I didn’t have to witness the brutal hunt up close, although I watched the banger boats drive the dolphins in from a distance. However, I did encounter the dolphins in captivity in the sea pens, being broken and starved while trained for human entertainment. Those images will stay with me forever.
I met my husband Matt when I was nineteen. We both love to travel, and we tend to pick places where we can pursue our passions for animal encounters and the natural world. Our highlights include four months in South-East Asia, including chartering a tiny vessel to Komodo Island and staying amongst the dragons. We got engaged on an island full of monkeys in Halong Bay, Vietnam, and for our honeymoon we visited Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, the Galapagos Islands, and travelled into the heart of the Manu Biosphere of the Amazon to see everything from capybaras to caimans. We have taken our two young girls to Japan, China, Singapore, the UK and Lapland, and on a camping tour around Australia. When life allows, we’re always looking forward to another adventure.
You can download my official short and long bios from my Press Pack page. I also write two substacks, taking readers behind the scenes at Story Matters, and supporting writers at The Resilient Author, exploring themes around storytelling, publishing, culture and creativity. And you can also follow me on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
