Book Loving Kiwis discussion

Please leave a comment below if you intend to read Touching Shadows by Gracie O'Neil during January.

Also, use this thread to discuss the book.

Participating:
Angie
Ella's Gran

I have just bought my kindle edition through Amazon. Not sure if this was the best option. It was $3.74 (US).

Me too. It looks like it's the only option.

Yay! I had an email from Gracie last night. She is going to be joining us, so get your questions, comments, queries, ponderings ready!
I'm reading this next up.

I'm completely and utterly hooked on this one! Loving it, despite the fact I have to read it on my iPhone. Must save up for a Kindle!

Angie wrote: "I'm completely and utterly hooked on this one! Loving it, despite the fact I have to read it on my iPhone. Must save up for a Kindle!"

Angie, get a Kindle Reading App for your PC - much easier to read then.

I too am hooked on this book - sneaking a chapter here and there at work ☺ It's a really good story with lots happening, and to happen yet!

Agree. I tried to download it to my MacBook but something went a bit pear shaped. Will try again tonight.

I've got an early kindle - 6" e-ink - which I find really good for it's convenient size, and how it's easy on the eyes, but you cant use it so well at night without a direct light. It's good to take to the hairdressers (I'm there for a wee while getting coloured in) because I can readily alter the print size. I also have an iPad on which I have a kindle app and I really like the bigger screen for reading ebooks on when I'm not in a confined space. And of course it's an audiobook player for MP3 format, I can get ibooks, and borrow ebooks from the library with the Overdrive app, and it's a mini computer. Love my ipad♥

Hi Angie and Ella's Gran :-) I'm thrilled that you're enjoying TOUCHING SHADOWS. Is there anything you'd like to ask me? If I can answer without giving away spoilers, I will!!

Oh, I meant to say. I do intend to do a print version through Createspace eventually. But I'm the only person in my company :-) and writing takes priority at the moment. TOUCHING SHADOWS is available on iBooks, Kobo, and Nook though, if that helps.

Gracie, I'm hooked. Am about 40% of the way through and have already made up my mind to read the rest of the series. When it comes out in book form, I will definitely buy it.
I'm loving all the wee sayings. Many of them are so original. I can't help but giggle.

Hello Gracie & Angie, I'm just about finished at 85% and it's getting really exciting!

I am enjoying your writing style as much as the story Gracie, and to be frank, I don't want the story to finish - I'm not sure just how it will end, but part of me is worried it will be sad and maybe scary, while the other part of me wonders if it will be a happy ever after which I'm not sure I want that either ☺

I am loving the characters. Really feel I know these people and have a question to ask unless it becomes apparent at the end, but I don't want to say too much until Angie has finished in case of spoiling it.

I have bought the next book in the trilogy already.

Saturdays are my hobby days. So once I get my housework and run ticked off the to-do list I'll be spending a good chunk of the day reading. So hopefully you can ask that question sooner rather than later, Lesley!

Angie wrote: "Gracie, I'm hooked. Am about 40% of the way through and have already made up my mind to read the rest of the series. When it comes out in book form, I will definitely buy it.
I'm loving all the we..."

SHADOW SEER (Book 2) is out already, and available on the major e-platforms. No print yet. :-( Sorry. Book 3 (working title GIFT OF SHADOWS) was going to be out 2013, but my day job and the first of my COVERT LIAISONS series (DEADLY REUNION) got it the way. I hope to have DEADLY REUNION done and dusted by the end of February, and then it's back onto GIFT OF SHADOWS.

I'd be interested to know if you'd like to know more about the painting, and Thomas and Abigail's story. I'm considering doing a prequel to the trilogy at some point.

So many ideas. So little time! LOL

Kathleen wrote: "Gracie wrote: "... TOUCHING SHADOWS is available on iBooks, Kobo, and Nook though, if that helps. ..."

Delighted to see it's on Kobo - I've just put in a request for Auckland Libraries to purchase..."

Now that's really interesting, Kathleen. Thank you! I have a question now. How does a library lend an e-book? My husband just asked me, and I've no idea! :-(

Kathleen wrote: "Gracie wrote: "Kathleen wrote: "Gracie wrote: "... TOUCHING SHADOWS is available on iBooks, Kobo, and Nook though, if that helps. ..."

Delighted to see it's on Kobo - I've just put in a request fo..."

Thanks, Kathleen! :-) I wonder if my local library does it too. Shall ask on Tuesday—and find out how it works from the writer's perspective. Isn't technology great? There's always something new to learn.

I've just finished Touching Shadows and loved it. If I could, I'd have given it 4.5 stars, but have gone with 4. It is a book I'll definitely re-read and I'll continue with the series. I see that Brandt makes an appearance in the second book. I loved the mystery, romance and the psychic element. Megan was a very loveable character - in a butt-kicking sort of way!

Lesley, I've copied your number of pages for this book. I had no idea what to list it as!

I'm pleased you liked it. I've been thinking about bits of the story all day. The question I mentioned is about Annalise - what was your take on her? You see I'm not sure whether I missed something or just plain got confused late at night - lol

Angie wrote: "Lesley, I've copied your number of pages for this book. I had no idea what to list it as!"

I got the number of pages from Amazon and it's usually pretty accurate. Both my iPad and Kindle are saying the same in the location band for the same page so we'll take that as correct.

(view spoiler)[I kept wondering whether she was an actual person or a figment of Megan's imagination. I think she was an actual person, but I'm not entirely sure as to when she really died - prior to the auction starting or months before? (hide spoiler)]

The reason I didn't give this book five stars is because I did get a bit confused and lost at times. I had a bit of trouble initially remembering who was who. That's why I think I'd like to re-read it. A bit like The Luminaries in that regard! This isn't a criticism, as I believe a bit of confusion is essential in a mystery. It was probably due to my 'teacher-getting-ready-to-start-the-new-school-year-and-not-able-to-switch-off' brain at the moment!

Well, you might have the same question as me so here it is. I will hide it in a spoiler just in case someone else is reading it.

(view spoiler)[For a good way through the book I thought Annalise was a real person, but then I suddenly questioned that soon after Megan came to NZ. Then I couldn't decide one way or the other and by the end of the book I still am not sure - I think I know, but not sure. (hide spoiler)]

So that's my question!
Lesley

Ella's Gran wrote: "Well, you might have the same question as me so here it is. I will hide it in a spoiler just in case someone else is reading it.

[spoilers removed]

So that's my question!
Lesley"

Did you spot my spoiler in my post above yours? It didn't show up very well.

Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I'm now dying to know your question and can't see the spoilers. About Annalise?

Gracie wrote: "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! I'm now dying to know your question and can't see the spoilers. About Annalise?"

Bother! Well it turns out we both are wondering - Annalise figment or real person>

Real person.

(view spoiler)[Annalise had met Galen many years previously, and because he had grown up with Megan he recognised her gift and asked her to work with him.
She agreed, but before she could start the job she had an accident. She was fine but physically injured and couldn't do the job so Galen had to call Megan in—although he didn't want to (dangerous!)—to pretend she was Annalise.
It was going to be a really short term thing until Annalise literally got back on her feet again. Annalise had so many fabulous contacts in the art world--on all sides of it.
So Megan met Annalise, and they clicked. Megan did the job, establishing Annalise as someone prepared to walk on the dark side of that world. Then Annalise had her stroke, and the whole house of cards started to fall down.
Megan had a choice then. Walk away, or continue to play Annalise moving around her galleries in Europe for part of the year and being who she really was (Megan) for the rest.
Funny thing happened (although I'm not sure that I put this part into the book, so you get a little insight here). Megan **loved** playing Annalise because Annalise was a sweetheart. People loved her and she loved people. Megan had never been loved and didn't really understand how, but as Annalise she was able to explore a part of herself she'd been too afraid to acknowledge was missing. Because she met Stone as Annalise first it opened her up to feel something for him which, perhaps, she might not have had she met him first as Megan.
She and Annalise, because of the "click" they had, and because aspects of their gifts were so similar, found they were able to communicate, but only through mirrors. This communication was usually initiated by Annalise when she had the strength. So in a way Megan and Annalise, while two separate people, were also for a time two halves of the same whole. (hide spoiler)]

Hope this helps!! :-)

Very much helps thanks Gracie. It is how I first thought but where I began to doubt her reality was as it got nearer to the end. For some reason I begun to think Megan had been Annalise all along.

One more question just to clarify that Annalise died just before the auction?

Ella's Gran, yes, she did.

That all makes sense. And it all rings a bell too, in retrospect. I'm sure Annalise's relationship with Galen was explained early on, but I forgot about it as the story progressed. A good reason to give the book another read.
I love the name Annalise, by the way. It must be so much fun naming characters - a bit like having many children? I also loved how all of Megan's siblings had slightly odd artistic names.

Yes, I find that I can't really even start a story until I have the names right. It can be annoying. The third book in this series I started writing the heroine as one name and it was like pulling teeth. :-) It wasn't until I discovered I had her name wrong that she really started doing stuff. And she didn't have the background I'd given her either. Wretched woman. But once I discovered her what her background really was I realized why she couldn't have the name I'd given her, and her background would create even more tension between her and the hero ...always an excellent thing in a story, if not in real life. :-)

I don't believe in some mystical hoo-hah when it comes to writing, but I do know that sometimes it requires me to stop and listen to what my characters are actually saying rather than me trying to tell the story my way. THEN I can write the book!! LOL