{Guest Post} {Review} When the World Was Flat

Looking back, I wonder if I had an inkling that my life was about to go from ordinary to extraordinary.

When sixteen-year-old Lillie Hart meets the gorgeous and mysterious Tom Windsor-Smith for the first time, it’s like fireworks — for her, anyway. Tom looks as if he would be more interested in watching paint dry; as if he is bored by her and by her small Nebraskan town in general.

But as Lillie begins to break down the walls of his seemingly impenetrable exterior, she starts to suspect that he holds the answers to her reoccurring nightmares and to the impossible memories which keep bubbling to the surface of her mind — memories of the two of them, together and in love.

When she at last learns the truth about their connection, Lillie discovers that Tom has been hiding an earth-shattering secret; a secret that is bigger — and much more terrifying and beautiful — than the both of them. She also discovers that once you finally understand that the world is round, there is no way to make it flat again. 

An epic and deeply original sci-fi romance, taking inspiration from Albert Einstein’s theories and the world-bending wonder of true love itself.

Guest Post: Inspiration Is All Around

It struck me the other day that all four of my books are set in the country, not the city. I think it is a result of my surroundings growing up.

I was born in a city (see photographic evidence of my brothers and I on Sydney Harbour), but grew up surrounded by nature, both on the coast and in regional Australia.

I spent a lot of my childhood on the coast and surfed through my teen years (I now live about two hours from the coast, so my surfboard is gathering dust!).

Most of my childhood was spent inland though in small towns or farming communities.

You only have to look at the poetry I wrote as a child to see the effect this had on me.

For example:

The Willow Tree

The willow tree stands by the river;

Where the bluebells and buttercups quiver.

They're amazed by the sight;

Of the fairies delight;

When the sparrows fly hither and thither.

The Raven

The raven sits in a tall, tall tree;

With its black head under its wing.

Yes, there it sits and there it stays;

Until once again comes spring.

The illustrations in my first book – a picture book called A Lot of Things show a farm with horses and cockatoos (very Australian). And my Frank Frankie novels are set in a small town, which Frankie referred to as being 'In the Sticks'.

When the World was Flat (and we were in love) is also set in a small town – a fictional town in Nebraska called Green Grove. A description of the town is as follows:

We all hated Green Grove. For three quarters of the year it was flat and brown, for the other quarter it was waist deep in snow, which made its name as misleading as the sign that declared it the gateway to the renowned wine region, the Open Valley. We were more like a backdoor, or even a cat flap, to the rolling vineyards which grew, out of place, next to our desert-like town. Even the flowers in Main Street had died two months after they were planted…

I think my stories lend themselves to being told in a country town, where gossip runs rampant and everyone knows everyone else. I describe this in When the World was Flat (and we were in love):

Green Grove, Nebraska, has a population of four thousand, six hundred and something, which results in about two degrees of separation between the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker.

When I wrote about Green Grove, I pictured a town I grew up in here in Australia called Kurri Kurri, which is next to the world-famous wine region, The Hunter Valley.

I now live in a city - the capital of Australia in fact. But I am not sure my stories will become citified anytime soon given it is known as the Bush Capital. There are kangaroos on almost every corner!

This was such a great and wonderful book to read!

"*I received a copy of this book for free to review, this in no way influenced my review, all opinions are 100% honest and my own."

Giveaway Details and Widget

Enter below for your chance to win one of two awesome prize packages as part of the Around the World in 80 Days Blog Tour for When the World was Flat (and we were in love) by Ingrid Jonach. 

There will be two winners worldwide. Each prize package includes:

·      a signed copy of When the World was Flat (and we were in love)

·      a pair of silver plated key-shaped earrings in a When the World was Flat (and we were in love) gift box

·      a When the World was Flat (and we were in love) bookmark.

The competition will run until 21 October 2013 and the winners will be announced on this page and via www.ingridjonach.com

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Posted in: 4 Stars, Interview, Review, Young Adult