Holy ever-lovin’ heck!

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In case you hadn’t already noticed, I totally get down-home-Kentucky-style when I get excited.  Or angry.  Or drunk.

Yeah.

ANYWAY

I’m really excited to announce that I won this week’s Speakeasy!  Yes!  Me!

So what does that mean?  Well:

  • I get a supercool badge to display proudly (below)
  • I get to write the first line prompt for next week’s Speakeasy submission contest (very exciting)
  • and I get to feel the slightest bit awesome about myself today.

Seriously ya’ll.  In a week where I’ve doubted my writing abilities, felt everything I produced was crap and just generally hated being me, this was like the writing gods smiling down and telling me I’m actually not a terrible writer.

I needed this.

Thanks to everyone who voted, commented or even just read Sweet Kiwi.  It means the world to me.

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.

Interview with the saucy Victoria Fox

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After reading and reviewing Wicked Ambition, I managed to slow my breathing and my fluttering heart long enough to interview the very marvelous Victoria Fox, author of Wicked Ambition, Hollywood Sinners and Temptation Island.  There’s my summer reading set for this year!pic5[1]

While reading Wicked Ambition, I definitely was able to match up real celebrities with the fictional ones in the novel.  Did you use any celebs or celeb gossip as inspiration for any of the characters or scenes in the book?

Definitely. I’m intrigued by the secret lives of the super-famous. We live in a world driven by a strange and seductive media machine, and I think those who survive it at the top of the game must have to make enormous personal sacrifices. I’m a bit of a conspiracy theorist at heart so putting these ideas to fiction is a fun and salacious way of exploring that. Many of the characters in Wicked Ambition are inspired by real-life celebs and I’m glad you spotted a few – I always think that’s so much of the fun in this kind of book. When I see a strand in the press that hooks my imagination, whether it’s a hint at scandal behind closed doors or a full-blown outrage playing out on the public stage, I love to fill in the blanks and weave it into a story.

Did you have a favorite character in Wicked Ambition?  If so, who was it and why did you latch on to them?

Turquoise is my favourite of the girls – she’s feisty and fearless and she gets the most amazing revenge on a real asshole of a man. But overall I’d have to say Jax Jackson. He just wrote himself. Actually he belonged to a different book a while ago (an unpublished one) so bringing him back and giving him the spotlight at long last was excellent. Jax is one of those characters that seldom come along for an author – he just popped up, already a person, already formed, with a story of his own, and all I had to do was follow. 

Which character was the most challenging to write?

Puff City, my LA hip-hop crew. There’s a complex dynamic at work within the group because of their sketchy history, and it was a challenge to position them just right. I wanted to hint at latent menace without giving too much away.

Moving away from Wicked Ambition (because I hate spoilers more than anything!), which of your books have you enjoyed writing the most so far?

I’ll always have a soft spot for ‘Hollywood Sinners’ because it was my first. I kind of threw everything I had into it, everything I loved about those glossy 80s bonkbusters and wanted to bring back in my own. Because I didn’t have a book deal at that point it was a massive leap of faith. I wrote the book in a manic fury over three months and the first draft was really awful. It needed completely pulling apart and reassembling, so it was a valuable learning curve as well. No matter what state my first drafts are in now, I always think, I drew ‘Hollywood Sinners’ into shape and if I can do that then I can do this.

After reading Wicked Ambition, I think it’s safe to say you’re an authority on writing a good sex scene.  Wicked Ambition definitely has a little something for everyone, no matter what your taste!  What is it that makes for a good sex scene?

Confidence. When I read a sex scene I want to be the one blushing, not to feel as if the author has beaten me to it. Euphemisms don’t work – I like an author to say what they mean, and members and loins and all that just aren’t erotic. Bad sex is nervous and fumbling, and so is a bad sex scene. Good sex is capable and sure of itself, and the same goes for the writing: it should be smart and bold and know what it is doing. All great sex scenes break taboos. I love being shocked! If I read a sex scene that makes me gasp, that genuinely surprises me and makes me want to tell all my friends, then I know I’ve found a special book.

My favorite saucy read has to be Shirley Conran’s classic, Lace (goldfish have never been the same since).  What writers or bonkbusters can you recommend when people are starved for more after Wicked Ambition? 

I love ‘Lace’ too. The goldfish! Exactly what I mean about breaking taboos – people are still talking about it thirty years later. Also ‘Savages’ by Shirley Conran is a mega book – an epic, brutal, brilliant feminist romp about jungle survival; it’s intelligent and political and sexy all at once. All the best bonkbusters are about strong women. For me it’s the main difference between bonkbusters and erotica: the fact that the women in bonkbusters come out on top, they’ve outgrown the notion that the Alpha male will solve their problems because they are perfectly capable of solving those problems themselves. The queen of writing strong women is Jackie Collins. She’s my favourite author in this genre and always has been. ‘American Star’ is a great place to start with Jackie, as is ‘Lovers & Gamblers’. Her ultimate feisty female is a ball-busting beauty called Lucky Santangelo – try ‘Lady Boss’ for a taste of the magic!

Last but not least, my favorite question and possibly the most revealing!  Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words (“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”).  What would be your six word story for your life so far?

Dreamed of writing…so I did.

You can find out more about Victoria and her books on her website.  Victoria is also one of the lovely writers featured in this summer’s hottest getaway anthology Sunlounger along with London Diaires regular (can I actually call her that?) Lucy Robinson!

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.

*Advance Read* Wicked Ambition by Victoria Fox

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Wicked Ambition – Victoria Fox
Publisher: Harlequin UK
Release Date:  7 June 2013
Rating:  5/5
Source:  Advance copy from NetGalley!
Synopsis:  If not victory, revenge!
Some will do anything for fame.
Others will do anything to bring the famous down.
Three superstars. Three secrets.
For Robin, Turquoise and Kristin, the spotlight shines brightly. They’ve reached the glittering heights of stardom, and are adored the world over. But in the shadows lies the truth… An expose could be their end.
Because not everyone is happy about their success. Not everyone wants the best for them. Some people want to reveal the real stories behind the luxury parties and gorgeous men, and bring their dazzling worlds crashing to the ground.
Who will fall first?

Last year on holiday in Fuerteventura (oh so distant past) I devoured Shirley Conran’s Lace in a matter of days.  Wicked Ambition is, without a doubt, Lace for summer 2013.  Seriously.  I felt like I should be reading this book on a hot, sunny beach while sipping a mojito and not on a crowded bus in rainy, depressing London.  Now magazine has branded the book ’600 pages of sin’ and they’re not wrong.  There’s loads of treachery, sex, revenge, more sex, violence, sex and well… sex! 

Having never read any of Victoria Fox’s other novels, I didn’t quite know what I was getting into when I requested the advance copy of Wicked Ambition on NetGalley.  All I knew was that the blurb sounded fun and like a much needed break from some of the more serious (aka depressing) stuff I’ve been reading, plus blogger friend Leah over at Chick Lit Reviews and News seemed pretty excited about it so I thought I couldn’t go wrong.

Wicked Ambition is the stories of three women–Robin, Turqouise and Kristin–and is as much about the drama that comes with fame as the connections that tie them together.  I really liked how Victoria wove in certain sub-charaters and situations that connected the women together without being overly (and painfully) obvious.  The sex scenes, because how could you not talk about those, were written very well and without the cringe factor despite being pretty graphic.  Like Lace, there’s a little something for everyone here, minus the goldfish!

As a whole, the novel was like one of those guilty pleasure celebrity reality shows only sexier and a lot more dangerous and I found it really hard to put down!  I kept wanting to read on a bit further, just one more chapter, until I found myself at the very explosive climax (ha ha) and satisfying (the puns are too easy) ending.

I love bonkbusters–they never pretend to be what they’re not and they never fail to disappont.  I’ll be eagerly awaiting Victoria Fox’s next novel… after I’ve read her back catalogue of course!

Wicked Ambition is out on 7 June in the UK and the US, just in time for summer break!  For more info on Victoria Fox or her other books, check out her website or pop back tomorrow where the glam lady herself will be talking about what makes a good sex scene and loads of other juicy bits!

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.

I must be doing something good…

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…because I’ve just been given my first ever blog award!  It’s the “I Moustache You a Question” award and it was kindly bestowed on me by my blogga-from-anutha-mutha Danielle over at The Life and Times of a Mom.  We’re basically destined to be blog besties, despite the fact we live a bajillion miles away.

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The rules for this award are:

  1. Add the awesome badge to your blog. (So everyone will know how slammingly bodaciously brilliant you are)
  2. Thank the person who nominated you. (How could you NOT???!!!)
  3. Answer your nominator’s question.  (Make it good)
  4. Nominate two bloggers for the award to keep it going. (Obviously not the person that nominated you…because then we’d just keep going in circles!)
  5. Ask the new winners a question! (Ask them anything you want!)

 Danielle’s question for me and fellow nominee GoJulesGo was:

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be, why would you go there, and what would you do?

What a great question!  I’ve actually been very lucky in that I’ve gotten to travel a lot since university.  I’ve been to Paris (twice), Nice, Madrid (several times), Fuerteventura (twice) and Betws-y-Coed in Wales (soon to be twice).  Oddly enough, last night I had this bizarre dream, psuedo-nightmare even, about going to Australia by myself and forgetting my bikini but being too fat to buy one in the shops there.  Needless to say, I must be stressed/self conscious right now.

So where would I go?  I can honestly say out of all the places I could go, right now my ideal trip would be to Mexico.  I’ve never been and it feels like a bit of a shame as I adore the culture, food, history, language and literature.  Maybe it’s because I’m currently lost in rereading Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo.  If you haven’t read it, do.  It’s a challenge but worth it.

What would I do in Mexico?  I can tell you now I’d skip the party scene in Cancun… so not my thing.  I think I’d like to bum around a bit, town hop and take in the food and cerveza (’cause, y’know) and the people.  I’d like to practice my (appalling) Spanish on the locals.  Most likely I’d base the trip around Dia de Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.  There’s something so compelling, something so raw and spiritual about the Day of the Dead.  It’s a beautiful day filled with love, respect and remembrance which I find beautiful.

Mexico has such a rich and vibrant culture and way of life that I think gets lost with the media focusing on drug cartel violence, immigration issues and poverty.  There’s so much more to Mexico than buying a kilo of some dubious powder and either hung by gangsters or shot by police.  You only hear about the bad stuff in the news. 

And now I must pass on the Moustache Award to two other worthy bloggers and they are (drumroll, trumpets etc):  writer and fried Rebecca Crowley and blog The Jiggly Bits which is pretty much crack in blog form… addictive and an insane ride (feel free to quote me).  My question for you guys is:

Complete this famous quote (originally) by Mark Twain:  “Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my (blank) the most.”  What is your blank and why?

Thanks so much, Danielle!  I’m pretty much doing this at my desk right now:

blQBec4

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.

Sweet Kiwi – Speakeasy #109

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It surprised me when she started to talk; I hadn’t expected her to take up my offer so quickly without any questions, without hesitation. I watched as Katerina dug her thumbnail into the flesh of an orange and sent a fine mist of citrus into the air. It smelled of summer and warmth and reminded me of when I was a child, my father peeling oranges for me as I sat on the deck at lunchtime, legs dangling in the pool as I waited to be allowed back in “after my stomach settled”.

“Is easy,” she responded in her thick Eastern European accent. I watched her peel off each segment and lay them down one by one in a row in front of her, neatly lined like little soldiers ready for battle. “But is need to be fifteen hundred, not twelve.”

I watched her closely as she continued set out her orange pieces. Her platinum blonde hair was pulled back tightly in a low bun making her look severe and harsh. She wore little makeup apart from mascara which served to highlight her piercing blue eyes. I, on the other hand, caked it on to hide bruises and swollen red eyes. Katerina looked like a formidable, but beautiful opponent, strong whereas I was weak. My husband would fall for her with little problem. I hoped she’d make him suffer just as he’d made me.

To look at Katerina, you wouldn’t guess that she had been responsible for the assaults of many less than loving husbands and boyfriends. She was slight, birdlike even, and quiet. I had no idea what her day job was or if in fact she had one at all. Rumour had it she had been behind the high profile murder case of the politician who took a stiletto heel to the eye. He had liked to dabble in unseemly sexual practices which had wound his wife up in A&E. That job must have had a sizeable payoff.

Haggling I had expected. A quick agreement to my proposition? Not so much. Katerina was the best in the business, but from what I’d heard she wasn’t one to take a job quickly. She liked to assess the situation, her potential client’s need for her very special skills. I couldn’t imagine Katerina doing much of the rough work herself—it had to be her two beefy bodyguards standing watch outside my front door who did the heavy lifting.

“Thirteen,” I shot back, eyebrow arched. I dug my nail into the soft wood of the table, pockmarked from science experiments, art projects and more dinners than I could count. It had also been the site of countless cups of tea while I sat, fighting back tears after another endless night of shouting and threats. Those nights, the nights where he’d threatened to take our children away to his home country—even thinking of those nights made my blood run cold and my anger rise like bile in the back of my throat.

“Thirteen fifty and is deal.” Katerina delicately bit into an orange slice, final offer.

“Thirteen fifty, then.” I stuck my hand across the table to shake hands with the gorgeous femme fatale who, I hoped, was the answer to my prayers—a lethal angel.

Instead, Katerina put her hand in the bowl on the table. “Kiwi?” She placed the fruit in the palm of my outstretched hand. (569)

 

My Primark Adventure

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There comes a time in every Londoner’s life where they’re forced to, against all odds, go down to Primark on Oxford Street for some reason or another.

Primark stores are an entity in and of themselves and are their own micro-planet.  They’re all crowded.  They all smell.  There is always a baby crying its head off somewhere in the store.  There are no exceptions; trust me, I’m not making generalisations here.  Those of you who have already succumbed to the gravitational pull of cheap prices and tatty clothes already know what I’m talking about.

I’ve been to a few London-based Primarks… Croydon, Southside, Tooting Broadway to name a few.  And they all are well and truly the same.  Clothes hangers litter the floor, items are strewn carelessly about and they never ever have your size in that one particular dress that you came there for.  It’s like magic.  Oh, and while you’re there, purposefully for one item, you seem to remember that you need about a billion other things.  And why not, you think?  It’s all so damn cheap!

Anyhow, yesterday I conquered a huge fear of mine.  Other than one other (very) fleeting time with N, I have never been brave enough to dare the experience that simply is the flagship store on Oxford Street.  If you know me at all, you know I hate (and fear) large crowds of people in small spaces.  There are days I can’t even do the Tube, people.  For me, going to the Oxford Street Primark was like telling me I was about to be thrust on a submarine meant for 4 with 4,000 people.  It’s a special kind of hell for me.

Sadly, I didn’t have much in the way of choices.  I’m at an 80s club with friends tonight and while I had a top and skirt already, I needed tights, a tank top and accessories galore.  I’m broke and had three hours free last night and the office is only a 20 minute bus-ride away.  How the heck else was I supposed to deck myself out in neon 80s splendour?

The people.  God, I just felt like crying, it was all so overwhelming.  This is coming from the girl who avoids the Tube at all costs and some days can’t even bring herself to leave the flat.  Like today?  I’m having oatmeal for lunch because I can’t be faced with going out to the shop to pick something up.  I’m saving all of my energy and sanity for tonight’s 80s club excursion.

So let me give you a play by play of the Primark Oxford Street experience.

Entering the store, it was literally like diving into a sea of people.  I’ve heard that expression before, but never did I actually get it until yesterday.  Never in my life have I been around so many people in such a small (three floors!) space.

Right away, I spotted a fluorescent yellow top and nabbed it.  I wanted to thrust it up skyward and scream “mine!” but that would have been weird.  Instead I mentally patted myself on the back and congratulated myself for not (yet) going crazy.  It was easy so far… deceptively so.

Then I spotted a way cute dress.  Not what I came for but thus is the magnetic pull of Primark.  Into the bag it went to try on later.

After some difficulty, I found the hottest hot pink pair of tights you’ve ever seen (oh yeah, baby) and, with additional struggle, black leggings in my size (needed ‘em).

Off to the dressing room to try on the cute dress that I didn’t need.  Nope.  The line for the fitting room was so long I’d still be there.  Cute dress went back on the nearest rail.

Got confused and tried to go up the down escalators, at which point I felt my bravery and resolve slipping and I wanted to cry.

Finally made it to the 2nd floor without further incident for shoes.  Let me just pause here and point out that there are plenty of places to sit and try on shoes in Primark.  However, let me also point out that there is a special level of hell reserved for all those bastards on their fat bottoms using the those seats to rest whilst their children run rampant, climbing shelves, knocking things over and causing mayhem.  Were those women trying on shoes?  Nope.  No joke, there were more people trying on shoes flamingo style than there were people sitting down and actually trying on shoes.  I found a pair in my size and just chucked them into the basket.  It was a gamble but thankfully it paid off.  

Accessories next and I gotta say ‘well done’ to Primark.  I had my pick of tacky neon necklaces, bracelets and earrings.  Score!

And then… the queue.  It was a mile long and I felt my will to live beginning to slip.  I started live-tweeting my mental breakdown.  25 minutes.  That’s how long I was in the line to check out.  People were sending their friends/family/partners to stand in the line for them while they shopped and then joined them later.  Ridiculous.

Now.  Imagine doing all of that only 3 people deep, no matter where you turn.  That is Primark Oxford Street.

But… when forced with a last minute decision to go to an 80s club and not having anything to wear, where did I turn?  Primark.  Because at the end of the day it’s cheap, garish and there’s a plethora of stuff around to choose from.  If you can get to it, that is.  For one offs, you could do worse (and more expensive).

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.

*Advance Read* Sisterland by Curtis Sittenfeld

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9780385618496Sisterland – Curtis Sittenfeld
Publisher: Random House UK, Transworld Publishers
Release Date:  6 June 2013
Rating:  3.5/5
Source:  Advance copy from NetGalley!
Synopsis: For identical twins, Kate and Violet are about as unlike as two peas from the same pod can be. Except in one respect – they share a hidden gift they call ‘the Senses’, a special kind of intuition that can allow them to see things that are yet to come. After Kate inadvertently reveals their secret when they are thirteen years old, they are set on diverging paths into their adult lives.

Twenty years later Kate is a suburban housewife who suppresses her premonitions in the hope of leading a normal family life, while Violet lives alone and works as a psychic medium. Then one day Violet ignites a media storm by predicting a major earthquake in the St Louis area where they live. 

As the day Violet has announced for the earthquake draws nearer, the sisters must grapple with the legacy of the past, the confusion of the present, and the unsettling glimpses they both have of the future.

Let me start by saying I loved Sittenfeld’s American Wife.  Brilliant stuff and the people I know who’ve read it loved it as well.  On the opposite side, I wasn’t a fan of Prep.  For me, Sisterland  was sort of the Goldilocks of the three novels… it was solid and enjoyable but it didn’t wow me like American Wife did.

Sisterland is one of those funny books, where for the duration of the novel I found myself rooting for one character (Kate) until nearly the end at which point I began to dislike her a bit more than strongly.  Sittenfeld does a brilliant job of crafting Kate’s reputation and demeanor and then in a single instant turning her whole image upside down.  I didn’t really like Vi much at the start and didn’t like her much more at the end–she stayed relatively constant (and flaky) for me.  Courtney I absolutely abhorred; I won’t deny that I love to hate a character!

One of the most enjoyable bits of this book is how Sittenfeld builds up to the predicted date of the earthquake with mundane, everyday occurrences, flashbacks and mixes it all with a dash of an insidious sense of panic which grips Kate (aka Daisy).  In the days leading up to the date of the earthquake, I found myself hooked and reading pages faster than I could turn them.  Would Vi’s prediction come true?  Would St. Louis indeed be rocked by a cataclysmic earthquake.  Or, I began to ask myself, reading between the lines, would the earthquake be of a different sort? 

More than the physical turmoil and upheaval brought by violent acts of nature, Sisterland is just as much about destruction and change of another kind–of the self and the relationships we hold most dear.

Sisterland is out June 6 in the UK and June 25 in the US.

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If you’re interested in getting in touch, tweet me at @stephanie_khani or @londondiaries1.  Alternatively you can email me at emailthelondondiaries [at] gmail.com.