{"id":8084,"date":"2017-10-25T15:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/janetgover.com\/?p=8084"},"modified":"2017-10-25T15:00:01","modified_gmt":"2017-10-25T14:00:01","slug":"a-new-book-and-a-new-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/writing\/a-new-book-and-a-new-me\/","title":{"rendered":"A new book and a new me."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Here it is – introducing Juliet Bell.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I\u2019m really pleased to at last be able to reveal some exciting news. I\u2019ve been keeping this secret for what seems like forever\u2026 but now I can announce that I have new book coming out soon \u2013 in a new genre, with a new name and a writing partner.<\/p>\n

The Heights is a modern adaptation of the classic story of Heathcliff and Cathy \u2013 set in the late 20th century, against the backdrop of the miners\u2019 strike and the decline of a once proud mining community in Yorkshire.<\/p>\n

Juliet Bell is the pen name for my writing partnership with Alison May<\/a>. It all started at a conference a couple of years ago. We each led a workshop, and both used Wuthering Heights to illustrate very different points.<\/p>\n

This is a book I have wanted to write for years. I am a huge fan of the original. I have often heard people talk of Heathcliff as a romantic hero and Wuthering Heights as a great\u00a0love story. In my mind, that\u2019s just not true. Heathcliff is a fascinating character\u2026 but he\u2019s no hero. It\u2019s not really a story about love, it\u2019s a story about obsession and the destruction it can cause.<\/p>\n

As a journalist, I have read and written about the period from the winter of discontent, through the Thatcher years up until the global financial crash in 2008. This time of great social change and discord seemed a perfect setting for the book \u2013 but as an Australian, I really didn\u2019t feel I had the cultural background to do it justice. Research can only go so far.<\/p>\n

Back to the writing conference.. and Alison who is not only a fabulous writer, but also grew up in just the right part of England at just the right time. She too loves the work of the Bronte\u2019s \u2013 and like me tends to think of Wuthering Heights as something other than the romance of popular belief.<\/p>\n

At the conference we joked that between us we could write that book \u2013 and get it done in time to mark the 200 anniversary of Emily Bronte\u2019s birth in 2018. A couple of weeks later, we decided we weren\u2019t joking, and The Heights is the result.<\/p>\n

I thoroughly enjoyed the collaborative process. You can go and meet\u00a0Alison on her website<\/a> \u2026 and there will soon be a Juliet Bell website, because The Heights is not her only work. Alison and I are part of the way through another book \u2013 but shhh \u2026 I can\u2019t say anything about that one yet.<\/p>\n

I am incredibly proud of The Heights, and will be talking about it on Juliet Bell\u2019s twitter account @julietbellbooks \u00a0and facebook page <\/a>too. And I probably also should mention it\u2019s now available for pre-order<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m really pleased to at last be able to reveal some exciting news. I\u2019ve been keeping this secret for what seems like forever\u2026 but now I can announce that I have new…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnhocking.net\/jg2025demo1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}