Suzey Ingold's Blog: Suzey says...

To celebrate the upcoming anniversary of Speakeasy being released, I’m giving away a whole load of goodies… One winner will receive the Speakeasy gift box (pictured above), containing:
☞ A personalised, signed copy of Speakeasy
☞ Moscow Mule mug
☞ Happiness Lies Within mug (intended for coffee, but alternatively can be filled with tea…or gin)
☞ Art deco notebook
☞ Cocktail colouring book
☞ “Hangover Detox” Persian Pomegranate tea
☞ Boozy chocolates
☞ Other Speakeasy goodies!

Two runners up will also receive personalised, signed copies of Speakeasy and possibly a few other goodies, too…

The giveaway is open worldwide, from now until Tuesday 14th February (Valentine’s Day!) Entry is free and you can enter as many times as you like.

Good luck!

☞ Enter via Rafflecopter

“Perhaps I ought to have had the grass cut,” Heath says. He digs the toe of his brogue into the grass and frowns. “It’s a little unkempt.” Heath looks up.

Frankie doesn’t appear to have been paying the slightest bit of attention. He whistles some ditty low under his breath and toys with an empty glass tumbler.

“Frankie.” Heath folds his arms over his chest. “Frankie. Did you hear what I said?”

“Hmm?” Frankie turns his gaze onto Heath. A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “In all honesty, I stopped listening when you began to fuss over the table linen.”

Read more at suzeysays.com

A deleted scene from Speakeasy

Gin was the liquor of choice during the Prohibition Era—you’ll find that most of the well known cocktails from that time have gin as their base. From the simple Gin Rickey (gin, soda water, and lime form the main ingredients) to the more complicated Bijou (vermouth and green chartreuse add a real kick to the gin), gin is the number one thing to have in your liquor cabinet if you want to recreate the drinks of the Jazz Age.

The thing about gin during the Prohibition, however, was that some of it was really, really awful. Given the laws surrounding alcohol production and consumption, a lot of gin was made at home in pretty amateur-ish conditions—known as bathtub gin. The process of making bathtub gin is not quite as literal as it sounds—the name comes from the fact that bottles would be topped up with water from the bathtub taps rather than the sink taps, as the bottles would be too big for the sink!

Unsurprisingly, alcohol poisoning during the Prohibition Era by homemade liquors, including bathtub gin, was relatively common. But, it’s not all bad. Without bathtub gin, some cocktails never would have come into existence, created purely in the process of trying to mask the taste of the awful gin with other flavours!

Want to try out some gin-based, Prohibition Era cocktails for yourself? Try out these recipes from Speakeasy

One of my favourite discoveries while writing Speakeasy—both as someone who loves the 1920s, and as a linguistics student—was the wealth of Jazz Age slang that was used in that time. Most of it has long since fallen out of use over the years. Of what remains, some of the meanings have shifted over time; while others few people would probably realise hark back to that era.

Of them all, my very favourite is undoubtedly cash or check? meaning shall we kiss now or later? There’s something so wonderfully romantic about it; of the anticipation leading up to a first kiss.

Art turns Heath until his hands rest at the small of his back as he pulls him into his chest. “Cash,” he whispers, the tip of his nose nudging against Heath’s. “Or check?”

“Cash,” Heath replies without a moment’s hesitation. He stands on his toes as he joins their lips with his heart beating so loudly he’s sure that Art must be able to hear it in the quiet of the subway station.

If you’re interested in finding out about some more 1920s era slang, pick up a copy of Speakeasy and check out the handy little glossary tucked in at the back…

Today's the day—let me tell you about the summer of 1927...

Speakeasy is available in print and as an ebook from the IP Web Store, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple’s iBookstore, Smashwords, All Romance eBooks, Book Depository, and an indie bookstore near you. 

Today, I received a box. It was quite a cool box (also quite a heavy box that I'm now contemplating how to get 300 miles back up north with me on Thursday). This book contained my copies of my upcoming novel Speakeasy which comes out this Thursday, February 18th. Knowing that I was to be with my brother's family all of this week, I'd had them delivered to his house rather than mine.

The first thing I did with the box was put it on the couch so I could phone my mother. The second thing I did was actually open the box. The third thing I did was take a photo of my gloriously shiny and beautiful books—the cover art is, frankly, breathtaking, and that my name sits on that cover is still freaking amazing.

My 2 year old niece was very excited to see in the box when she returned home from nursery—the last book she knows I wrote was entitled "Rachel and the Dinosaur" and is a handmade seven page epic about my niece herself that's bound with red string and she keeps on her bookshelf.

She lifted this book out of the box and looked at it.
"It's a love story," her mother, my sister-in-law, told her.
"Is it a love story between these two men?" My niece asked, pointing between the two men.
"Yeah, it is." I told her. I wondered if she'd ask a follow up question.

Instead, she nodded and asked if I could draw a restaurant inside the front cover for her. (I still haven't figured out why that was her request. I think she was just excited to be going out for dinner.)

I often get asked questions when I tell someone I've written a love story between two men and often it is why? Why not? I love that, for a child, there seems nothing out of the ordinary, nothing that need be questioned. Maybe we could all do with thinking from a child's perspective a little more often.

It's a love story between two men, alright. Now about that restaurant, Auntie Suzey...

This morning, I had a startling thought: it's one month until the book comes out. Then, I realised it is in fact less than one month, because today is the 19th, and not the 18th. I blame this mishap on believing, in my emotional-over-Anakin-Skywalker state having watched Revenge of the Sith for the first time, that I went to bed after midnight last night but I did not. (Yes, I am very late to the Star Wars party. I'm getting there. And I don't want to talk about Anakin; the wound is still too fresh.)

Anyway: point is, it's less than one month until Speakeasy comes out.

The thing about writing a book, is that it takes a long time. Not just writing the book, although that takes a long time, too. But then the editing, and the tweaking, and the conversations about book covers, and the making of 1920s cocktails. (The last one, truly, has been such a hardship. You have no idea.) It all takes time. So the fact that one day in the very near future, the product of all of that time and work is going to be a real, tangible thing, that people are (hopefully) reading? It's kind of insane.

Good insane. But insane.

So: less than a month to go. Because it's the January 19th today. Not the 18th.

This past year has been one of the busiest of my life—and not just in that it was busy, but in that I was busy with so many different things. Internships at film festivals, planning a book, working the Christmas rush in retail, writing said book, trying to learn to draw, moving from part-time student to full-time student.

But one thing that's remained consistent is that I've constantly been learning. I've learned so much this year—not least about my writing, about how I can improve, and about the world of publishing and writing professionally.

Life is a learning curve. Some bits are tough and some bits are easier. You're always learning. And I think that shows the mark of a good year.

Here's to the 2016 and all the new lessons I have yet to learn.