About

 

Welcome to the Mari Howard Blog, linked to the Hodge Publishing Website.  

Followers will already know that the blog reflects my wider world, the world which inspires, informs, and enthuses the stories in my fiction. Sometimes it will include the natural world, or walks, where I go for relaxation and renewal.

My books are in a genre sometimes called ‘Crossover’,: they don’t fall easily into any genre or onto any shelf in libraries or bookshops. There’s a talk I give called  ‘A Genre of One’s Own’ (alluding of course to Virginia Woolf’s well known  book, A Room of One’s Own, in her case, a space to write). My writing space – my pages of stories – hover between family sagas and literary fiction, carrying the characters from Book One (Baby, Baby), set in Cambridge in 1984 and completing in 1988 through to Book Three (in preparation) at present with the working title Love You to the Moon, set in 2017 and looking back to significant events for the family in 2007.

‘Crossover’ expresses the need to tell a story which covers both family warmth and serious social comment on contemporary society. Baby, Baby and The Labyrinth Year embody these important themes as central plot drivers. They consider the  implications of reproductive science for society, and the more hidden clash of cultures in our secular society.  By 2017, these will have leapt out to become far from hidden, a reason it has taken me a long while to decide to proceed with a Book Three and how to tell the tale. They also embody an element of mystery, which helps to carry the story along.

The result, neither popular light fiction nor literary fiction, lies somewhere between. This underlies my decision to publish independently: and I was so happy to discover ALLi (Alliance of Independent Authors) back in 2013. ALLi is international, and  supports, encourages, informs, and generally draws together all of us who are ‘Indie writers’ today.

Many of us (me included) publish in paperback, but many of us also take advantage of the e-publishing era. (Find my paperback books on the website, and Amazon, or on Amazon Kindle.) Some of us have become involved with the LitFest at Hawkesbury Upton, South Gloucestershire, (read about these on the website).

You can discover more about ALLi and the indie publishing scene by clicking on the icon for ‘ethical author’  on the website, or look for us here

Below are a few photos which tell you a bit more ‘about me’, and my life away from the desk.

               

Mari Howard is, by the way, a pen name. But ‘me’ is pretty much the same person …

All photos unless stated otherwise are my own, often taken for the blog. Please if you want to reproduce anything, request permission first: thank you!

Find my Books:   

On the Hodge website:         http://hodgepublishing.co.uk/home/

 

Or on Amazon (Paperback or Kindle)

        Baby, Baby: here

The Labyrinth Year: here:

 

Thoughts? Leave yours in my comments box.