Xavier Leret

Another fantastic five star rating for HEAVEN SENT this time from vvb32reads. I feel completely humbled. Check it out here and sign up to win a copy of the novel. Don’t wait, go get!

Other news includes a story of mine has been selected for this years MIR8 collection. It will be coming out in September. I’m very pleased to have once again been selected and that my work will appear alongside that of some extraordinary up and coming talent.

Got to run as I am taking the kids for a picnic, by a brook, where I have promised them there is a troll.

Fantastic! Another humdinger review on GoodReads. I am doing a guest post on Stacy’s site, The Write To Make A Living, which should be up later today, will keep you posted.

Heaven Sent is like Romeo and Juliet turned inside out. Two kids from two different worlds fall in love. Carlo is from a prudish Catholic family, while Daizee is a prostitute who has seen and experienced more than most adults. The sheltered Carlo finds himself thrust into the world that his parents desperately tried to shield from him – all for love.

This book is not for the light hearted, as the subject matter is very dark. If you enjoy complex characters and you like pondering societal norms, morals, and ethics, this is the book for you. I was very surprised by how much I enjoyed the story. My eyes teared up at the end.

The author did a fantastic job showing the contrasts of these characters, even down to Daizee’s accent. Brilliant!

Stacey Donaldson

GoodReads

*****”Xavier Leret is an accomplished author of screenplays and short stories; “Heaven Sent” is his debut novel. Leret displays a deftness with language and dialect that leaves the reader feeling eerily connected with the teenaged protagonists, who feel severed from the society in which they live.

Young Carlo struggles against his parents' unrealistic expectations and the crushing weight of their religious fanaticism. Carlo is a “good” boy with a bright future, but he finds himself irresistibly attracted to Daisy, a young prostitute who does what she must to survive.

“Heaven Sent” addresses themes of class, morality and judgement, as Carlo and Daisy fall into love and iniquity. This is a gripping, fast-paced read that will keep you guessing until the final scene plays out.” Majorie on GoodReads

Check out the review here

"A heartbreaking, beautiful, romantic story, if you ever find the same love that these main characters have keep it!"

Check out the whole review at mybookaddiction

And I'm interviewed on mybookaddiction too.

I've been interviewed by the up and coming new horror fiction star Steve Emmett. You can find the interview here.

*****"Mix together Romeo and Juliette with Bonnie and Clyde and throw them into J.D Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and you'll get an explosive, brilliant and breath taking novel: Heaven Sent, by debut author Xavier Leret." evie-bookish Read the rest of the review here.

Keep an eye out on Evie's site as she will be interviewing me next week, I am also writing a guest post for this week. And, as if there could be no more – she'll be holding a giveaway of Heaven Sent – what could be better?

Other news, I'm just putting the finishing touches to some questions that electric author Steve Emmett has thrown my way – so keep an eye out on his site too – (check out the video of the Canadian ex minister of defense too). I will of course make announcements here. 

Finally you can buy Heaven Sent here. Go Get!

***** Heaven Sent is a self-published book by debut author Xavier Leret. When I started to read it I was ready for the disappointment that all too regularly accompanies the foray into self-published books. I could not have been more wrong.

In his telling of the story of Carlo and Daisy, two young people from opposite sides of the tracks, Leret lays bare many of our prejudices. With great skill he subtly tackles the damage which over-zealous religious beliefs cause to the lives of the innocent every day, and how the results are the direct opposite of what is intended. I was reminded of the legionary making that final wound in Christ's side, forever a weeping hole in the doctrine of The Church. He draws his bow across the strings of child abuse and prostitution with all the sensitivity of a great violinist, the music rendering us weak and drawing tears to the rims of our eyes.

It is not an easy read. If your book library consists of Jeffrey Archer and Stephenie Meyer you may not like Heaven Sent. Leret has opted to write Daisy's heavy Bristolian accent literally and it takes some getting used to. And there are typos that a good edit would resolve. But none of these should stop you reading it and appreciating it for what it is: a work of genius.

And here's the review on Amazon – don't it look purty!!!

*****"A wonderful coming-of-age story meshing dark experience with the dictates of religious rules and heavenly mercy, this is a book to savor and remember long after reading." Sheila Deeth

*****"A novel with a lasting effect…highly recommended!" Amazon.com

*****"A heartbreaking, beautiful, romantic story, if you ever find the same love that these main characters have keep it!" Book Girl Addict

*****"Leret displays a deftness with language and dialect that leaves the reader feeling eerily connected with the teenaged protagonists, who feel severed from the society in which they live." Marjorie. GoodReads

*****"a work of genius." Steve Emmett

This is a copy of the article that I wrote for Sheila Deeth's blog.

When I began Heaven Sent, it was a eureka moment, not in the sense that I had cracked something profound like light speed or the secrets to eternal life, I just knew that I had started my first novel. I hadn't set out to start it. It wasn't like when I wrote plays. I would announce that my theatre company was going to tour a play and it would be about this or that, and then I would write it. Heaven Sent didn't begin like that. I just wrote a thousand words. That thousand words were about sixteen year old Carlo, except that then he was fourteen. In that thousand words were three sentences where Carlo, a lad from an extremely religious background met a girl called Daizee, whose step father sold her to sailors from out the back of his van when she was just three years old.

None of that first thousand words made it into the novel, even though at the time I thought they were a brilliant thousand words. But what I thought was really special was Daizee and Carlo. Carlo was like everything that I wanted to be but didn't have the courage to be. And Daizee – well I just saw her through his eyes and she was dazzling. She was everything that would scare the hell out a parent. Crude, guttural, hard and yet vulnerable – though she would only show that side to Carlo. But more than this, she understands life. She knows that nothing is what it seems because she has been abused by the upright as well as the lowly.

Two weeks later I had sketched out what I thought the story would be. Then of course the characters decided to take over the narrative. Daizee and Carlo taught me how to write the book. They were very patient. They let me veer off on tangents and experiment in style. They let me have two or three years off when I wrote other plays or made a couple of movies – though they were talking to me constantly – Daizee especially. She was in my ear all the time. When I wanted to give up she would curse me, calling me all sorts.

Just after Christmas a year ago I sat down to finish the story, nothing was going to get in the way. I hadn't touched it for a year and I was angry at myself for not completing it.

Back then I thought Daizee and Carlo would have an equal presence. I wanted it to be equal. It took me half of last year to realise that actually it was really Carlo's story. Not to denigrate Daisy – I had written huge passages of her back story, that were shocking and disturbing – some of it I still think is extraordinary, but it was too much for most readers. And it wasn't very present, it was in the past and a story needs to move forward. I had written her stuff as first person narrative, she spoke directly to the reader and because it was so disturbing it was alienating. Heaven Sent is dark as it is, but to have added in that detail would have put off too many readers. So I/we compromised. Also during this last year I cut all the work of the five previous years. That was difficult.

Daizee's accent is thick Bristolian. Bristolian is almost like another language. I began to experiment with the accent over the summer and found that it made me experiment with her vocabulary. Using the accent gave her a very clear poetry and rhythm. I loved the way that visually it stood out from the page. It makes Daizee appear from out of this world. I think also it immediately makes people prejudiced against her – which is how most of the characters in the book are when confronted by her. She is difficult to understand and her accent will suggest to many that she is trash. But not to Carlo. And because he listens and loves… then perhaps…

Another incredible review. This one from Sheila Deeth in Oregon.

"Heaven Sent, by Xavier Leret is set in Bristol England and tells of a Catholic boy from an overly religious family meeting up with a child prostitute. Both of them outcasts on the streetcorner, they form a dangerous friendship. Carlo's attempts to empathize with Daisy lead him to the seamiest side of the city. A wonderful coming-of-age story meshing dark experience with the dictates of religious rules and heavenly mercy, this is a book to savor and remember long after reading." Read more.

My guest post is up on her site now! In it I explain some of my writng process.

I'm stunned and honoured that Heaven Sent has been selected by Bloggers Unite Book Club for a group read in Feb 2012.

My first reviews are in and they are humdinger! You can find them and buy the book here. But because they are my first reviews you must forgive me for pasting them into this post.

*****A novel with a lasting effect…highly recommended!, 31 Mar 2011

This is essentially a love story between two young people from different sides of the tracks.. one brought up in an oppressively religious household, the other dragged up & knocked about by life. The effect the two main characters have on each other is explosive.
Through the eyes of the boy Carlo the author allows us to see beyond the damaged front put up by Daizee and shows us her vulnerability. The reader is drawn into their relationship, willing it to succeed against all odds, whilst at the same time wanting to somehow make contact with Carlo and shout "Keep away from her! She's dangerous!" It is, at times, a painful read, as it examines the less savoury elements of human nature…however it also reminds us of the delights & passions of first love. It is quite different from anything I've read before & I found myself reading through the night just to see what happened next!
Reading this novel made me think about how appearances can be deceptive and how even the smallest decisions can change the course of our lives. It reminded me that whatever life throws at us we all need to love and be loved. A novel which will have a lasting effect on how I see life…Heaven Sent Heaven Sent

**** Difficult themes but well worth a read, 28 Mar 2011

Having never really (I don't think) come across books of this genre before, I was really interested to see how the story would unfold. I wouldn't say it's the easiest book to read but it is definitely worthwhile, as the writer handles the themes involved with great care and skill. I would say that I'm glad I read it!! I think the main reason I found it so hard to read was because the main character, Carlo, is such a likeable personality that I didn't want anything bad to happen to him. We could all probably see elements of our sixteen year old selves in him; rebelling against some of the ideals and principles our parents teach us growing up…its par for the course. He's incredibly naive, although the deeper he gets into the situation he finds himself in, he thinks he's an adult. The fact that he imagines alternative views to his real experiences underline the fact that he is still a child. However, where he does show his maturity, is in his attitude to the events that unfold. He knows when something is wrong, he feels responsible for his actions (even if he doesn't confess straight-away), and he shows remorse for his actions. He doesn't try to blame someone else. He isn't really a bad lad, just out of his depths. Again, when it comes to Daizee, there is a childlike maturity, we as the reader (maybe like Carlo's parents) formulate the opinion, rather cynically, that this can only lead to no good and Carlo is a nice boy, but he sees something we can't. Daizee is the complete antithesis to Carlo, but this doesn't stop him from caring about her, and showing her incredible loyalty. He feels a duty to protect her, which you have to admire.

Daizee is a much harder character to like. She's a tough personality on the outside, but Carlo sees the vulnerability inside. Essentially, she is a victim of circumstances. She hasn't had the same safe, happy childhood as Carlo, hers has been more nightmarish and about living by her wits, so her moral code and justifications are not what "Society" would deem acceptable. At times, she seems happy to manipulate to get what she wants, and the cynical view is, is she doing this to Carlo. You just aren't sure she can be trusted. In hindsight, these are probably my own prejudices against her, rather like Carlo's parents. It's easy to judge her and say "she had a choice", but Society did nothing to protect her when she was at her most vulnerable. Yes, she has a choice, but its quite clear that Daizee sees this as her lot in life and doesn't expect it to change even with Carlo's influence, which ultimately is a tragedy. The only thing she wants out of life is something untarnished by her world that will love her unconditionally, in this case, Carlo.

Now I don't understand teenage speak at the best of times. It does require a great deal of concentration on my part, and the babelfish in my brain to be functioning properly. Even then, I still struggle. Mix that with a Bristolian accent and yes, I was in trouble. It did take a little while to get to grips with Daizee's speaking voice, which at times I did find a little comical (I think it was more my attempts to hear her voice by mimicking it while I was reading it, than anything else). Hats off to the author for this because it couldn't have been easy to write and I think it works really well.

After all this praise, was there anything I didn't like about the book. Well…there was one small thing, and it is very much a personal grumble. Speech marks. I did at times find it hard to know when characters, other than Daizee, had started speaking. I know it's accepted writing practice to either use them or in this case, not, but personally, I find it harder to read when they're absent.

Would I recommend this book, yes, but probably not to anyone under the age of 16/17, due to the content. If you're easily shocked by things then this probably isn't the book for you as it contains themes that show the harsher side of life. Although having said that, it's probably one of the reasons why you should read it. We all know that some people live nightmare lives. Maybe we should just feel grateful that we never have to experience them ourselves. Or hope we never will.

My thanks to Xavier for allowing me to read and review his book!

Disclaimer: I was kindly supplied with a copy of this book by the author, in exchange for an honest review. I have not been provided with any compensation for this review other than a copy of the book.

You can read other reviews by Spritesby here http://spritebysbokhylle.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/book-review-heaven-sent/

A sense of loss pervades Sherman Alexie's powerful and beautiful story, THE TOUGHEST INDIAN IN THE WORLD, in which the picking up of fellow Native American hitchhikers is a 'ceremony'. It is beyond an act of kindness, it is a tradition that has been passed down to him by his father and it is a means for our narrator to keep in touch with his culture and his sense of spiritual being.

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“History has always existed, but not always in its historical form. The temporalisation of humanity, brought about through the mediation of a society, amounts to a humanisation of time. The unconscious movement of time becomes manifest and the true within historical consciousness.”

Guy Debord – Society Of The Spectacle.

What is time? Time is the line on which history unfolds and history is the narrative of our past, our cultural make up and identities, our collective understanding of our beginnings, the truth and the fictions of our heroes and villains, the myths, the documents of decisions made, the images of moments captured. Time is the abstract measure by which we live, the clocks beating towards our death and death is final and absolute. However, the theory of relativity put paid to that notion of time being absolute because observers attempting to measure light speed each held identical clocks, which were, at times, in disagreement. Moving clocks, for example, tick more slowly than stationary clocks.

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