Showing posts with label Xavier Leret. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Xavier Leret. Show all posts

Friday, April 29, 2011

Heaven Sent by Xavier Leret

Heaven Sent
by Xavier Leret

Published: 2011
Genre: Coming of Age, YA
ebook
Rating: 5

Description from the amazon:
Sixteen year old Carlo has no experience of the world. He desperately wants eternity to provide an alternative to the strict moral imperative of his Catholic parents.

When Daizee Byatt, a girl from the other side of the tracks, crashes into Carlo's life, the course of his future veers off the road.

This is the story of what Heaven Sent.

fyi: kindle edition is currently available for $3.99

Zombie sighting:
Inebriated on his tragedy Carlo zombied down the wide streets of the affluent bricked buildings with large window, mowed lawns and spring laden fauna.
- location 481, chapter 4


My two-bits:
In-a-word(s): troo
Wham! this one hit me hard. I was glued to this one to the end.

Mind you, there are passages written in dialect. These sections caused for pause while reading but really works to create the Daizee character.

Growing up Catholic, I did see some references to Mary Magdalene.

Such a beautiful, yet sad story.

--~ eBook Giveaway courtesy of author ~--

signup to win this ebook


~*~

* read Xavier's guest post starring Daizee

* review copy courtesy of author

* part of Fairy Tales in Bruges (the sequel) event

Monday, April 18, 2011

Castle: Tower


Meanwhile in the tower, an interview...

~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
by Xavier Leret
~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~

DAIZEE: Orright Mistur Writers, I got you's owt ere ta tawk a bit abowt dis ere book you's az written an I ziz in.

Xavier: That's right Daizee.

DAIZEE: Ets nice ere ain't et, looken owt over dat sea. You's don't mind climben up dis tower, et woz a bit of a wey up?

Xavier: I don't mind at all Daizee.

DAIZEE: Dat moon, Mistur Writers, etz like a jewel in some tart's ear, an dem stars ez like flicked up gizzum.

Xavier: Well I guess that's one way of describing it.

DAIZEE: I'm fucken wiv ya Mistur Writers. So whir's dis book come from den?

Xavier: I began it about six years ago.

DAIZEE: Woz I en et bak den?

Xavier: Yes. You and Carlo. I began it with Carlo and you appeared pretty quickly. When you appeared I knew what the book was going to be about.

DAIZEE: Ev you's new wot et woz abowt, why de fuck did et take you's so long ta write et?

Xavier: To begin with I wrote pages of prose without dialogue. I tried to change the tone of the prose to fit either your voice or that of Carlo's. I was floundering really, wanting to describe what was in your head and his, whilst also trying to create a story. I kept getting stuck. And I had other things that needed to be written. I wrote a couple of plays, directed a couple of plays and wrote and directed two movies. There was two or three years when I didn't touch the book. It was always there though, on the back of mind. There was a couple of times when I wanted to give up entirely.

DAIZEE: Why didn't you's?

Xavier: You wouldn't let me. You were always there. Everyday of that six years you spoke to me.

DAIZEE: I knowz et.

Xavier: You needed your story to be told and I wanted to tell it. I wanted to tell the world that you're not a lost cause that whatever happens you are someone worth fighting for. That so often kids like you are thrown on the scrap heap. My mother once worked in this secure unit and she told me this story of a girl who's dad sold her to sailors from out the back of his van when she was just three years old.

DAIZEE: Dat be I.

Xavier: Yes, that be you. Well the model for you. I don't know what happened to that girl, but I've always worried about her.

DAIZEE: So who's Carlo den?

Xavier: Carlo is the kid that I never was. I never had the guts that he has, to do what he does, for you. Like him I had a very religious background and like him I fought against it. I still do. I might be an atheist but I still battle with many of the questions that Carlo battles with. I can't get over the way the world is.

DAIZEE: How fucked up et ez?

Xavier: The way people are.

DAIZEE: I knows et.

Xavier: Yeah, you do.

DAIZEE: So why's you got I to tawk like you's as - I mean like dis funnee spellin an dat.

Xavier: It's your accent Daizee. You're from Bristol and Bristolian is like another language and I really wanted to capture that. I didn't always write you like this, but I always heard you like this. I love the way it looks on the page, too. It makes you stand out. I know it is hard for the reader to read, certainly at first, I suspect that it makes the reader judge you too – like the other characters in the book. It makes your journey with the reader all the more real and in turn all the powerful. And I hope transformative.

DAIZEE: Carlo doesn't see me like that.

Xavier: Carlo loves you.

DAIZEE: Yah tis troo.

Xavier: Yes, Daizee, it is true.

DAIZEE: Dat moon.

Xavier: What about it?

DAIZEE: Et ain't wot I sed et woz.

Xavier: No?

DAIZEE: Etz like your eye wotchen over I, when I's wiv Carlo.

Xavier: Is it?

DAIZEE: Yah, tis troo.

~end

Mini-interview post created for Fairy Tales in Bruges event by Xavier Leret author of Heaven Sent
© 2011. All rights reserved.

~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~
by Xavier Leret
~-~-~-~-~ guest ~-~-~-~-~


Read more about Daizee...

--~ eBook Giveaway courtesy of author ~--


Heaven Sent
by Xavier Leret

signup for giveaway


~*~


* image source castle tower

***~*~* Fairy Tales in Bruges (the sequel) schedule *~*~***


Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Giveaway: Heaven Sent

Heaven Sent
by Xavier Leret

Description from the amazon:
Sixteen year old Carlo has no experience of the world. He desperately wants eternity to provide an alternative to the strict moral imperative of his Catholic parents.

When Daizee Byatt, a girl from the other side of the tracks, crashes into Carlo's life, the course of his future veers off the road.

This is the story of what Heaven Sent.

fyi: kindle edition is currently available for $3.99

OR win yourself a copy here...

--~ eBook Giveaway courtesy of author ~--

Open to all.

Offer ends: May 1, 2011

TO DO:
Visit Xavier's site, watch one of his video clips and let me know which one.

AND, leave your email (if I don't already have it)

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Contest has ended - winner is here

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