Book Review of: "The Toy Car: A short story" by Rose Tremain

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⭐⭐⭐ out of 5 stars

Every book I read and review starts off in the same way, by me saying that each book starts off with the full passport of 5 stars and that I'm always hopeful that they will all still be stuck firmly in place.  I'm not shy about removing stars but I always give my reasons for doing so within the review - they don't just vanish.

This is a short story of only 48 pages so the author has got her work cut out to get the full load of stars!

I'm already at 20% and the first star is coming off for use of a couple of brand names, potentially without permission, so in fairness to past books which have had stars removed for the same reason, we are now down to 4 stars.

This is such a dull book that the teen reader it's aimed at would have given up by now, let alone an adult.  There's very little speech and the writing is just so boring that it's a struggle for me to read.  The second star is coming off at 58% and I'm grateful that it's such a short book so that I can hopefully finish it instead of giving up after only a few chapters.  Down to 3 stars now.

A disappointing end to a dull book.  It had so much potential that the author just didn't use.

2026 will see me...

...writing for children again and my non-NaNo novel is already planned out and ready to be written.

I wrote my first memoir for NaNo24 and I've written my second memoir for NaNo25, just a month early is all 'cos of getting my two jabs and I write to take my mind off the side-effects.

Hopefully back to normal again next year though.

Other than my non-NaNo26 novel, I'm all out of ideas for what else to write so any ideas from you, my wonderful blog readers, are most welcome!

I've decided...

...that I'll still write in November and edit in January and reward myself with a J2O for every 5k I write/significantly edit as if NaNo and JanNo were still going but I won't pressure myself to complete the manuscript/edit or feel bad if I don't manage the whole thing within the month.

I'm also still a SCBWI member, it's just being moved about a bit in the British Isles and there will be more RAs and ARAs as well as people with specific roles within that so it'll hopefully still be the same as it was, just in smaller groups instead of for the entire country.

I think I've realised that I'm still not alone, I've just gotta reorganise my head for a while.

The last...

...writing organisation is being restructured, so that's the third and final writing community that I joined is potentially gonna change beyond recognition/close, so I'm on my own with my writing again now.

The restructuring will be to make the region into smaller regions, so the organisation will still exist, but it doesn't seem like there will be much/any community between all the different regions.

I can see it from both sides and I'll stay a member until I make up my mind one way or the other, but there's no central community for my children's writing any more.

I've just...

...read the plan for what would have been my NaNo novel and I think I've hit the nail on the head with this one.

It starts with a huge amount of anger and stroppiness by the MC and the foster dad is feeling pretty worried about how he'll cope.  The MC goes through all kinds of emotions throughout but they and their blood family finally start to understand what love is and where they had all been going wrong.

It's definitely a happily-ever-after ending, especially the last chapter, but I think I've finally hit the sweet spot with this manuscript and I'm feeling proud and emotional right now.  I hope I do it justice when I come to write it.

In case you haven't heard...

...NaNo is no more.  

The site is still there but only until the money runs out then that's it.

Another part of my life ripped out of my heart.

I've got 4 domains in its memory but that's all the motivation to keep writing completely gone now.

I'll still keep writing, but I haven't got anything to aim for each year any more now.

If you were a donor to NaNo then you will hopefully be able to export everything in your NaNo account, but those who, like me, weren't a donator seem to be screwed.   If I'm wrong about non-donators being able to keep the stuff in their account, could you let me know how to do it as I haven't got an export link or button anywhere in my account and I just got a standard message saying "we've received your message but won't be reading or replying 'cos we'll be inundated" when I emailed them and all the information I've found talks about using the export link to download everything which I haven't got anywhere!!

A week later and...

...the plan of my gently magical MG NaNo25 novel is finally in the bag.  I had a few days off for some reason, but managed to plan out 20 chapters today, which is pretty good going... I just need to remember so that I don't get in a flap in September lol