In VOX LIT January 2019 :
IN THE FREE BOOK LOVERS' MAG VOXLIT ON-LINE THIS MONTH:

​***WISHING YOU GOOD BOOKS AND FUN READS IN 2019 ***

​After the holidays, the buzz of the festive season and attacks by a rather persistent influenza virus, here is our first edition of 2019, with old and new features and contributors.

A few month’s ago, we published a travel article on novelist Rob Burton’s youthful journeys in Africa. He’s now agreed that we will publish the whole series so you can start with episodes 1 and 2 this month.
 
Another regular section we hope to continue with is ‘Why you should read my book’. It throws down the gauntlet to authors to explain why, in a world with so many books, readers with limited time should devote any of it to their novel.
 
We’ve rooted out some more prize-winning books you might like. Our history of the genre series continues with a look at the ‘literary novel’, but no satire this time. Because fact at the moments seems to so much more outrageous than fiction, so we include instead a short analysis of the Brexit plot so far. As is often said, ‘you couldn’t make it up’ 

In our Features section, we've put in an intriguing contribution by regular contributor Rob Burton. Also Keith Guernsey recounts finding love and and new kid on the block Eric Vignieri muses on future fiction trends and flash fiction. 

Our Writers Notes section this time extols the pleasures we get from those endearing eccentric minor characters considerate authors insinuate into more straight-faced novels.

If you like what we offer you, please share with your friends. 
Click for these other ARTICLES ....
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**NEW FEATURES**

​Rob Burton's journeys in Africa 

Why read my book

OTHER ARTICLES

'Viggy' on Flash Fiction

​Keith Guernsey finds love
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SATIRE
What can you do when a plot goes wrong?

A question for novelists. Have you ever written one of those plots where a credible resolution is utterly impossible? Your hero is looking down the barrel of an AK-17 with no possible means of escape? A heroine is hanging from a helicopter by a threadbare rope whose last strand is just about to break? You know the kind of thing.
 
For writers, there are some standard solutions to this kind of dilemma. The protagonist can wake up trembling and sweating, but safe in their own bed. A deus-ex-machina can appear with a magical or at least high-tech power that can nullify the threat. Or the cavalry, in whatever form is appropriate, can appear over the hill.
 
If you’ve ever been in such a situation, spare a though for the UK Prime Minister. She has managed in real life to produce as many plot twists and turns as best selling thriller, and is now hanging over the Brexit cliff by her long fingernails, and they’re just about to snap off. But this isn’t fiction.
 
The dream solution is not available to her: she might wish it was just a nightmare but she remains resolutely awake. Her magical high-tech customs controls have been shown to be pipe-dreams. And there appears to be no prospect of a rescue mission, either from her EU pals or from her own party.
 
Poor Theresa! She makes us fiction writers so glad we can just make it all up.
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Contributed by James Gault 
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FREE E-BOOK
Enjoy Books Better with Voxlit is now available for download here   and is completely free. It you want to improve your writing or reading experience, these pieces from previous Voxlit issues could be just what you need.  
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MY BOOK OF 2018
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Of all the books I reviewed over the past year, my choice for my book of 2018 is Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood.
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​Read the review here. 
James Gault
​Click the month  to view articles from our previous issues  
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NOVEMBER 2018
OCTOBER 2018
SEPTEMBER 2018
AUGUST 2018
JULY 2018
JUNE 2018
MAY 2018
APRIL 2018​
​MARCH 2018
FEBRUARY 2018
JANUARY 2018
DECEMBER 2017
NOVEMBER 2017

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           CLICK THIS PICTURE FOR THE VOXLIT BOOKSHOP    -   LINKS TO ALL BOOKS BY OUR CONTRIBUTORS

New books from our contributors 

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​Three young women, three loves and three lives that are about to be changed forever. Caught up in a dangerous tide of extremism and racial tension, will Marianne, Sadime and Bea find what each of them craves? to edit.
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​Evangeline Pfeiffer has a stolen secret. There are those who will kill her to get it back.Unwittingly, she becomes an accomplice in the murder of Nazi agent Ludwig Kraus. Thrown together with the killer, a Polish spy, Kasha, her only hope is to escape to Spain.
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​Jerry and Fran Tilson ran away to France a few months ago
Today is a big day in becoming part of the community. They are having a housewarming party for their new friends and neighbours.

HISTORY OF THE GENRE
Literary Fiction - What is it?

Literary fiction is what ‘serious’ novelists write and what aspiring ‘serious’ writers try to write. But is there such a beast, and if so, how do we recognise it?
 
In trying to find out, I came across several definitions of the term. Goodreads, the book review website, tells me that the term originated in the 1960s, and that it distinguishes this type of novel from the less worthy but more popular genre fiction. So any book written before that cannot be literary fiction, no matter how good you think it may be. A bit of further digging revealed what really makes a book literary fiction for Goodreads. It’s literary fiction if the author or publisher describe it as literary fiction. So there, we are; very illuminating. To borrow a term currently in vogue, ‘Brexit is Brexit’.   
 
Still on the trail of erudition, I turned to Wikipedia. According to them, literary fiction has ‘literary’ merit. Another example of Brexit being Brexit?
 
But my favourite explanation of comes from the author John Updike, who claims his books are all literary fiction, because they consist of words. That seems to open the way for even me to become an author of literary fiction.
 
But as a reader, you want to have some idea if what you are buying is ‘literary fiction’, and if you decide to go ahead with your purchase, what it is you are likely to be getting.
 
The university world has seen a big expansion in the number of creative writing courses they offer, and to teach these courses they employ authors who write literary fiction. As a book buyer, it’s useful to know this. If you read the author ‘bio’, and find that he or she teaches in a prestigious or even not so prestigious university, you can be pretty sure that what you have in your hands can be counted as literary fiction. Another fairly reliable indicator is a label on the cover indicating that it has been long-listed or short listed for some book prize, no matter how obscure. You will find that most books with such labels are written by these academics; hardly surprising since they are also the ones selected to produce the lists.
 
Not all literary fiction comes from the world of academia, but thankfully there are other clues to help you. Any hardback fiction book is almost certain to be literary fiction; novels for the plebs go straight to paperback. Similarly, if the book has a sexy (in the most general sense) cover you can be confident that it doesn’t fall under this category.
 
But all of the above are just guidelines. Even if you follow them, you may end up with a volume in your hand which, although it passes these tests for this elevated form of literature, is no more than just an ordinary novel. Or,what might be even worse, you may have picked up what you hoped was an entertaining genre novel, only to find it is an example of the dreaded ‘literary fiction’. To be sure of what you have, you need to open the book and plunge inside.
 
First of all, if the book has an exciting, fast-moving and engrossing plot, it is unlikely to be literary fiction. The terms ‘page turner’ and ‘literary merit’ seem to be mutually exclusive. But if you don’t get much of a story, what you do get are well drawn characters that you can engage with. But wait a minute, don’t all good novels have good characterisation?
 
Another claim for literary fiction is that it has serious themes that it explores in depth. And other novels don’t? And while the literary novel should demonstrate the author’s capacity for using words and images, is the genre novel supposed to be the home of bad writing? And are literary novels invariably good.?
 
The main advantage of genre novels is what you know what you’re getting. Romantic novels give you romance, historical novels history, crime novels crime. But the best of them also give you good writing, great characters and interesting plots. So what’s the point of the ‘literary’ genre. I can only see one: if you’ve written a novel about something which does not fit neatly into the recognised genre categories, it’s a literary novel. So literary fiction is the lucky dip of the bookseller’s world.
 
It seems to me that there is no real fundamental distinction between literary and commercial fiction.
A good book is a good book, no matter what is it about. Publishers should abandon this pretentious classification and call their non-genre output what it really is: general fiction.   
    
​Contributed by James Gault.

PRIZEWINNING BOOKS
Wondering what to read next? More literary award winners to tempt you.

Here are some more books that have been chosen as the best reads of 2018.
 
The Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year
Adam Weymouth’s Kings of the Yukon is a non-fiction book about the environment. On an epic kayak 2000-mile journey through the North American wilderness, he explores our fragile relationships with nature.
 
The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2018
Serhii Plokhy’s Chernobyl: History of a Tragedy. An account of how an arrogant state’s carelessness leads to one of the world’s biggest man-made disasters.
 
Goodreads Choice Awards 
 
These awards are offered in carious categories and are chosen by readers. Here are the winners in the fiction categories:
Best Fiction: Still Me by Jojo Moyes.
Best Thriller: The Outsider by Stephen King.
Best Fantasy: Circle by Madeline Miller.
Best Romance: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang.
Best Science Fiction: Vengeful by V.E. Schwab.
Best Debut Author: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Ayedemi.
Best Historical Fiction: The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah.
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