The arts pages of newspapers and magazines often have recommendations for holiday reading but I haven’t come across a travel webpage that gives a link to a novel that is set in an exotic holiday destination. Well, not until Google opened up a lovely surprise for me.

I was engrossed in one of my favourite displacement activities: Googling for links to a random range of topics that happened to have caught my attention that day – anything from Aardvarks to the Zodiac . In this case, it was ‘Lamma Island’, for reasons that’ll be clear to followers of this blog, and as I scrolled down the first page that Google had led me to, I found this link.

There was a photo that I recognised and it immediately attracted my attention. You can guess how amazed I was to find a direct reference to my novel, Paper Lanterns, under the heading Lamma Island Holiday Read

“Looking for a book to take on your holiday to Lamma island? Want to read a book that is set in, and captures the spirit and charm of Lamma Island to give you a taste of what to look forward to? Or do you want to relive happy memories of a previous visit? Then take a look at the Christine Coleman’s latest novel, Paper Lanterns.”

As you can see in the review by John Cairns, a resident of Lamma Island himself, I have received the seal of approval for my representation of the island and the lifestyle of its ex-pat inhabitants.
This has made me wonder if there are any other travel sites that have caught on to this idea.

There are a couple of authors in particular whose books immediately spring to mind as ideal for promoting the places in which they are set.
Linda Gillard is renowned, not only for her brilliant writing and strong themes but also for the way she draws the reader into her landscapes and entices them to discover the Isle of Skye for themselves.

Emotional Geology is a novel in which the landscape itself becomes a key character in the story.

On her website, this photo aptly illustrates her explanation of the title:“Rock is a concrete record of the past, of what happened to the Earth – a build-up of pressure, seismic upheaval, erosion. When you look at rock you’re looking at layers of time. I think our minds and our memories are like that - a record of what we’ve been through and the toll it has taken - so the “excavation” of the past (which is what happens in the novel) becomes emotional geology.”.

The heading on the review page of her enthralling second novel, A Lifetime Burning,
would be perfectly at home on any travel webiste: “FIND A PLACE FOR IT IN YOUR HOLIDAY LUGGAGE!”

Among the accolades and prizes for her third book, Star Gazing,
is one that the Scottish Tourist website should include: STAR GAZING was shortlisted for the UK’s first environmental book award, the Robin Jenkins Literary Award, promoting writing inspired by Scotland’s landscape.
(Oh, and as well as being shortlisted for the romantic novel of the year (2009) it was also shortlisted in 2010 for Woman’s Weekly’s “Best Romantic Novel since 1960!)

Adrienne Dines is another author whose novels evoke the differing moods of the geographical and cultural settings of an island –her landscape is rural Ireland with its humour and hospitality and its dark side of shame and buried secrets.
Her first book, Toppling Miss April,
has been described by the Irish Examiner as ‘A cross between Father Ted and Ballykissangel…hilarious!’ There’s no doubt about Adrienne’s wicked sense of humour in this novel,

but her next book, The Jigsaw Maker, moves from affectionately gentle fun and romance to something far darker.

Her third novel , Soft Voices Whispering,has been described as “Hard to put down and impossible to forget, this is a book with a big heart. (And the cover is so bleakly beautiful, it’s worth framing.)”

If you’re planning a holiday anytime now, you couldn’t do better than order some of these books to take with you!

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Paraglider’s Three Times Lucky December,Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

DECEMBER HAS BEEN A LUCKY MONTH FOR ME, SO FAR
1) I was invited to take part in a live broadcast on Radio Wildfire to talk about my novels, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, and the soon-to-be-published Paper Lanterns.

2) I received a lovely recommendation for the back cover of Paper Lanterns from prize-winning author, Linda Gillard . She is writer of uncompromisingly high calibre and her third novel, Star Gazing, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009.

I have great respect for her judgement on literary matters, so I’m delighted that she enjoyed my novel enough to name it in the same breath as the two novelists she mentions below:

“A vivid and absorbing tale of family secrets and illicit love, observed with the keen eye of a poet. You can almost smell and taste Hong Kong. Recommended for fans of Margaret Forster and Penelope Lively.“

3) I’ve just had an article published in the Bookcrossers’ monthly newsletter. You can read it here, and see why I think that all authors should love Bookcrossers.

It’s exciting enough to think that some of the 829,653 members from all around the world might read my article, but on top of that I’ve been awarded a month’s free membership of ‘Members Plus’, and this means that my Bookcrossing name, paraglider will now display wings for the next few weeks. (It does bring other privileges, but I might not have time to take advantage of these.) Still, I feel very proud when I click on my Bookcrossing name and see those wings - the nearest I’ll ever get to being angelic!

I was awake extra early this morning, and instead of my usual half-hour jog down a leafy track under the arch of trees (an old coach-road, apparently), then across the golf course, and along the edge of the stream, and back up the road, I sat down at my computer and visited some of my favourite blog sites.

When I’ve gone a few days without dipping in to these sources of mental stimulation my brain gets as itchy and restless as the rest of my body does when I’ve missed out on physical exercise.

I was well rewarded this morning before I went to work, and again when I returned this afternoon. But before that, came a big disappointment – One of the first book-blogs that I’d come across, Ex-libris ‘taking an indefinite hiatus from blogging’.
It was a lively site with thoughtful reviews and I always enjoyed my visits (not merely to the link to her kind review of my novel, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society)

My next stop, Rhapsody in Books yielded two delights with one hit: There was the smiling face of my friend, Linda Gillard, an excellent novelist holding a fascinating discussion with an author I’d never heard of, Gillian Philip, who writes Young Adult fiction. Of course I then had to scroll down to the review that Linda had posted there about Gillian’s latest novel. I won’t say anything more about that, as you can read it yourself here!

I’m sometimes amazed at the amount I’ve forgotten in my life of what used to be an important source of pleasure and insight – in this particular case, the Young Adult books I used to read when I taught English in a girls’ Secondary Modern School (that shows how long ago it was- there’ll be plenty of people who’ve never heard of anything but comprehensives and grammar schools) –anyway, reading those posts, I was reminded of how I used to love those books – The main name that comes to mind is KM Peyton with her Flambard Trilogy and the rebellious schoolboy, Pennington, but there were lots of others.

Reading about Gillian Philip’s Crossing the Line has reminded me of how YA books often tackle the really important subjects in a very readable and thought-provoking way.

Another of my favourite sites is Dovegrey Reader and there again I was awash with nostalgia, thinking of books I’ve enjoyed over the years. Today’s post was about Susan Hill’s book ‘Howards End is on the Landing’ It sounds very enticing and I love the idea of listing my forty favourite books, and reflecting on each of them as I do this.

Another one that I first came across fairly recently is Juxtabooks This time my eye was caught by Juxtabook’s Top 10 Books of the Last Ten Years. I’d read five of her ten, and of those, I’d rate at least two as some of my own top favourites – Cloud Atlas I ’read’ as an unabridged audio version – it was fascinating to hear the six different voices telling their different tales. For the first couple of minutes of each new ‘story’ I’d feel a bit lost, not wanting to leave the other voice behind me, but overall I found it a compelling read. The other was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Craik, in which I found echoes from some of the ‘future’ parts of Cloud Atlas. I won’t attempt to say anything else about the books, as you can read those reviews for yourself.

Last, but by no means least, is a new treasure – Baroque in Hackney, a site crammed with a huge variety of posts and links. I’m afraid it’s going to be a particularly effective displacement activity for me in the future.