Spotlight: Love the Dark Days, by Ira Mathur

love the dark days

Love the Dark Days

Love the Dark Days
by Ira Mathur
Genre: Memoir

This frank, fearless and multi-layered debut centers on a privileged but dysfunctional Indian family, with themes of empire, migration, race, and gender. The Victorian India elephant in the room in Ira Mathur’s silk-swathed memoir Love The Dark Days is in chains. By the time calypso replaces the Raj in post-colonial Trinidad, the chains are off three generations of daughters and mothers in a family in their New World exile. But they are still stuck in place and enduring insecurity and threats, seen and unseen. Set in India, England, Trinidad and a weekend in St Lucia, with Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott Love the Dark Days follows the story of a girl, Poppet, of mixed middle-class Hindu and Elite Muslim parentage from post-independent India to her family’s migration to post-colonial Trinidad. Profoundly raw, unflinching, layered, but not without threads of humour and perceived absurdity, Love the Dark Days reassembles the story of a disintegrating Empire.

Available at Peepal Tree Press, Amazon UK and Amazon US


Advance Praise

“Glorious writing full of hard-won wisdom. A transcendent memoir about extremes of love and hate, princely wealth and the rebellious, righteous poor. I loved it.” —Maggie gee

“Moving from pre-Independence India to Trinidad and London, we see the growing pains of the author, as she decodes her rela-tionships with her glamorous parents, her beautiful piano-playing authoritative grandmother and her two siblings. In a world between poverty and privilege, she is guided by Derek Walcott and Naipaul is ever-present. Ultimately, she has to find her own voice, her own truth and reconciliation. A window into a world, rich in history, that few know about. A compelling read.”—Shrabani baSu

“A blaze of a book, a Caribbean feminist memoir that examines inherited patriarchal abuse of women and societal norms brought from the Old World to the New. This exquisitely written memoir examines familial love and fateful blood ties while scrutinising, with compassion, a flawed patriarch and magus too, Derek Walcott. Mathur deftly yokes together parallel worlds, colonial India and post-colonial Trinidad. Both worlds are dark, and both worlds hurt women.” —Monique roffey

“Mathur brings alive startling episodes from her technicolour life, proving truth is not just stranger but often more compelling than fiction. There is a sense of her burning through her days, reckless, raw, passionate at times. For all that, she offers the embers of her life with a rarely found wisdom. An exquisite, compassionate, and necessary book.” —amanda Smyth

“One of the most powerful and exciting new voices in contemporary literature. Love the Dark Days is an extraordinary, multi-lay- ered memoir, drawing threads from the colonial past into a moving, contemporary story of fragile relationships. Ira Mathur is a real find.” —David Haviland

“What marvellous and heartrending crossroads multiplied during the twentieth century. Between east, west, north, and south; many kinds of ancient and untold modes of modern; from ‘man’ and ‘woman’ to vulnerable beings of imagination and heart… Over the years I have witnessed Ira Mathur navigating an all too human writer’s life, I have yearned for her to put something of her beauty, wisdom and pain into print. Here it is. Stranger and more compelling than any fantasy, here we are.”—Vahni (anthony ezekiel) Capildeo

“This brave and inspiring feminist critique of patriarchy and gender oppression has wonderful promise as a biting movie adaptation for the #MeToo era.” —Etan VleSSing, Hollywood Reporter

“I was transported by this gem of a memoir, written over even years by an award-winning, Indian-born journalist, dubbed the “Jon Snow”of Trinidad. Set in her home nation, but also in St Lucia, India and London, it’s a multi-layered ac- count of a woman growing to feminist maturity while grappling with the ongoing traumas that result from her turbulent childhood. With many memorable characters, including her formidable grandmother Burrimummy, it also features Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott, who was a mentor of her work. Monique Roffey is spot on when she calls it a “blaze of a book.”—Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller

“A compelling memoir of the binding power of love and the liberating beauty of forgiveness.” —Earl Lovelace


About the Author:

Ira Mathur is an Indian-born Trinidadian award winning multimedia journalist with degrees in Literature, Law and Journalism. She is currently the Trinidad Guardian’s longest-running columnist, and has freelanced for The Guardian (UK) and the BBC. In 2021 Mathur was longlisted for the Bath Novel Award for her unpublished novel Touching Dr Simone. In 2019 Mathur was longlisted for the Johnson and Amoy Achong Caribbean Writers Prize. In 2018 she shortlisted for the Bridport Short Story Prize, the Lorian Hemmingway (short story) and Small Axe Literary Competition. Mathur gained diplomas in creative writing at the University of East Anglia/Guardian.

Ira Mathur

Website

Spotlight & Excerpt: Bentley + Giveaway

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This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a prize pack featuring a necklace made by the author.

Bentley
by Megan Slayer
Genre: Contemporary Erotic Paranormal Romance

I call on the fates to bring my love to me. As I will it, so mote it be…

Natalie Harvey wants a guy who not only understands baseball, but supports her love of the game. When she meets bad-boy first baseman for the Cougars, Bentley Turner, she can’t help but fall for him. He’s sexy, strong, athletic and irresistible. He’s her perfect man, but what if he’s not interested? The spark is there, and she decides to invoke the spell. Why not?

She’s ready to summon her very own bad boy and try her luck with love.


Read an Excerpt

“How about instead of going to the game, you come to the bar with us?” Sarah asked.

“I already have tickets, and I’m not wasting them.” At least not wasting one of them.

Sarah rolled her eyes. “You get tickets for free because of your job.”

“So?” That didn’t mean she should waste the chance to go. “I do have to keep tabs on the players.”

“Would you happen to be looking to hook up with one of those players?” Sarah folded her arms. “Some of those soccer players are pretty hot.”

“Baseball players are, too.” She shouldn’t have said that. “But they’re like other guys. They find out I’m a sportscaster and want things from me that I can’t give them. I don’t seem to find any decent guys. I meet athletes who want to get noticed and drunks who spill things and also want to get noticed.” She’d been kissed three times because she’d been caught on the kiss camera. Why did the person running the camera insist on putting her on the spot? The guys who’d kissed her weren’t attractive and none had her permission.

“I need to find someone for you for the spell,” Sarah said. “There has to be someone.”


About the Author:

Megan Slayer, aka Wendi Zwaduk, is a multi-published, award-winning author of more than one-hundred short stories and novels. She’s been writing since 2008 and published since 2009. Her stories range from the contemporary and paranormal to LGBTQ and white hot themes. No matter what the length, her works are always hot, but with a lot of heart. She enjoys giving her characters a second chance at love, no matter what the form. She’s been nominated at the LRC for Best Author, Best Contemporary, Best Ménage, Best BDSM and Best Anthology. Her books have made it to the bestseller lists on Amazon.com.

When she’s not writing, Megan spends time with her husband and son as well as three dogs and three cats. She enjoys art, music and racing, but football is her sport of choice. She’s an active member of the Friends of the Keystone-LaGrange Public library. Find out more about Megan and Wendi here; sign up for the newsletter here.

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Tour Schedule

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: The Goblin Twins, by Kit Barrie

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Goblin Twins Cover

Coming November 11th

What do you do when you have nothing to give and everything to lose?

Twin goblin princes Shi’chen and A’bbni Er-Ha’sen did not ever plan to take the Emperor’s throne. Older twin Shi’chen is a military prodigy, and younger twin A’bbni is studying to be a physician. But when their father attempts and fails to overthrow their cousin, the murderous crown prince, the brothers are accused of taking part in a rebellion they know nothing about.

Forced to flee for their lives, the twins find that not everything is what it seems in the goblin empire of Hanenea’a. With the help of only a half-elf sailor and a handful of nobles, the brothers must confront the Emperor and his supporters, risking everyone they love for one chance to save it all.

The Goblin Twins is a debut m/m non-magic fantasy novel with romance from Kit Barrie.

This is the first book of The Goblin Twins duology, and the first of a collection of stories set in the lands of Hanenea’a and Kendarin. It has all the angst but does have a Happy For Now ending with no cliffhanger. It does not contain twincest.

Please mind the author’s note on the first page, as this book contains sensitive material and is also not intended for children. Reader discretion is advised.

Pre-Order Universal Link

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Enter the Giveaway:

To celebrate the cover reveal for The Goblin Twins, we are giving away 2 advanced e-copies!

Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for your chance to win!

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About the Author:

Kit Barrie (she/her) was raised by pirates in a traveling carnival where she learned how to fly and to weave fantasy into reality. She identifies as chaotic bisexual, with good intentions and questionable methods. She lives in an utterly unfantastical state in the Midwestern United States with her very supportive partner and at least 4 food goblins who might just be cats gobblin’ food. The Goblin Twins is her first novel.

Connect with Kit:
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