#BookReview of #RozMorris ’ #NewBook ~ a Wonderful ! #Travel #Memoir

The title of this post may not be “pretty”; but, it should have some hashtag “influence” on Twitter…

 The reason for desiring the influence is Roz Morris‘ new book, Not Quite Lost – Travels Without A Sense of Direction. 

I know I used the words “Book Review” in the title; but, I’m much more the reporter here; so…

Here’s Roz telling us about the Source of her new book:

“A notebook is essential travel gear, of course. I have a special one I use when I’m off home turf. It’s an old leatherbound book embossed with the name ‘visitors’ – because it is the book I write in when I’m a visitor.”

That notebook is where she mined 25 years of travel for the tales in Not Quite Lost.

 In fact, that notebook also contains prompt-material for her first two novels, as well as a few future ones…

And, before I get into reporting on this book, I must mention those first two novels—both incredibly unique, both exquisite reads: My Memories of a Future Life & Lifeform Three…

 

Also, before we consider Not Quite Lost, I must trumpet the praises of Roz’s Writing Books, the Nail Your Novel Series…

And, backing up just a bit more (before we move forward), I can’t fail to mention Roz’s deep and rich experience as a ghostwriter…

Let’s just sum all that up with a quote from one of her Bios:

“Roz Morris published nearly a dozen novels and achieved sales of more than 4 million copies – and nobody saw her name because she was a ghostwriter. She is now proudly publishing as herself with two acclaimed literary novels and is frequently compared to Margaret Atwood, Ray Bradbury and Doris Lessing. She has also been a writing coach, editor and mentor for more than 20 years with award-winning authors among her clients. She has a book series for writers, Nail Your Novel (and a blog nailyournovel.com), and teaches creative writing masterclasses throughout Europe and for The Guardian newspaper in London.”

So…

I’ve just finished reading Not Quite Lost – Travels Without A Sense of Direction and I took just a few notes as I traveled along with Roz and her husband, Dave (who must not be slighted; so, here’s a Bio for Dave Morris…).

Before my few personal notes, taken as I read Not Quite Lost, here’s my idea of some Promotional Copy for Roz’s latest book:

Entrancing Tales ~ Chummy Anecdotes ~ Delightful Humor ~ Surprising Truths ~ Impeccably Lovely Writing; and, dare I say, Much More… :-)

My Sparse Notes from Not Quite Lost {there are 19 Tales in the book—the ones not mentioned below had a quality similar to some of Emily Dickinson’s poems, full of meaning that can be experienced; yet, leaving a trail of mystery in my mind...}:

Eve of destruction: a childhood home

Excerpt: “A family house is one of your guardians.”

You are not Morgana and I am not Merlin

I can’t reveal any of the words of this particular tale; though, it is full of humorous riddles…

I came to find her

This one is pure sweetness…

Staircases to nowhere

This one’s about a house that wouldn’t completely vanish…

Travels without a sense of direction

One word here: intrepidity (oops, that was four...)

A time traveller’s road

Rather amazing—Roz shares the personality of a road…

Cold sleepers

Utterly fascinating…

An earthquake

It was in Italy; and, Roz, during nitely retellings (repeated as mundane prayers): “I’d done the typical writerly thing – I was filing it away, to be able to tell it faithfully afterwards.”

Strictly faking it

A few reveals about her ghostwriting days and submissions of her own first novel, mingled with a very impressive flash-mob dancing gig…

West word

Such a lovely ending…

Roz gives a handy recap of all the places visited and a couple surprise links to the flash-mob dance and a Pinterest page of all the places in the book…

She also reveals how a few of the locations spawned places in her novels, past and future…

So…

If you’d like to read a “real” review and some supporting articles, try here, here, & here,

I’m going to share a video of Roz and Joanna Penn talking about Not Quite Lost; but, at about the 5 minute mark, Roz mentions a Particular Memoirist, whose name appears in some of the promotional copy for her book:

‘Move over, Bill Bryson … beguiling’ – Peter Snell, independent bookseller

Must include one last quote from Roz before the video:

“Not Quite Lost” is, as she says, a “…first collection of narrative non-fiction. Set mainly in England, it’s an ode to the quiet places you never realised might tell you a tale.”

Now, before I get out of the way and stop breaking many blogging rules: the following “Juicy” video travels quite a bit down it’s own trails, covering, among other paths—Fiction writers “keeping it real’ when writing memoir—Personal Essays—Writing for Therapy—Journalling—Splurge Drafts—Libel—Writing Novels—Marketing…

Hope you don’t have to suffer an ad before the interview…

Enjoy :-)

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