Hey, guys! Today, I have the utmost pleasure in bringing you a guest post from the author of one of my favorite new series. The EVERY series focuses on Rachel Watts and James Mycroft and their Sherlockian-type adventures. This series is written by the immensely talented Ellie Marney, who also happens to be a native of Australia. I'll say it again: I've never met (or read!) an Aussie I didn't like, and Ellie is no exception.
In
Every Breath, tea is mentioned -- and consumed! --
a lot. I like tea quite a bit, even hot tea, though it's not really all that favored in my neck of the woods. No, in the South, we drink the sweetest iced tea we can get our hands on. Anyway, because tea was so noteworthy in this novel, I asked Ellie to explore the tea-drinking custom as it relates to
Every Breath. And she did us one better...she even provides us a demonstration! But first, a little about the book everyone's been talking about these past few weeks:
EVERY BREATH
By Ellie Marney
In stores now!!!
Order Every Breath:
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Fishpond | The Book Depository
Here's the blurb:
When James Mycroft drags Rachel Watts off on a night mission to the Melbourne Zoo, the last thing she expects to find is the mutilated body of Homeless Dave, one of Mycroft's numerous eccentric friends. But Mycroft's passion for forensics leads him to realize that something about the scene isn't right--and he wants Watts to help him investigate the murder.
While Watts battles her attraction to bad-boy Mycroft, he's busy getting himself expelled and clashing with the police, becoming murder suspect number one. When Watts and Mycroft unknowingly reveal too much to the cold-blooded killer, they find themselves in the lion's den--literally. A trip to the zoo will never have quite the same meaning to Rachel Watts again...
‘I can hear
[Mycroft] banging around in the kitchen.
He’ll be boiling a saucepan full of water with five extra-strong
teabags, then fishing out the teabags and dumping in about half a can of
condensed milk before pouring the whole mess into a giant thermos that stands
ready on the kitchen bench…’
Now you might think that the example I
quoted, about Mycroft’s tea-making habits, is a bit unusual – and you’d be
right. Most people here in Australia
don’t make tea like that. We usually
stick to the English tradition and make tea the more conventional way.
But what’s the conventional way? Because Jen told me that in North America,
tea isn’t usually drunk hot. She said
that if you want a hot drink, you have a coffee, and you drink your tea iced,
and very sweet…which seems practically sacrilegious to me! It’s certainly not the way I would make it,
and definitely not the way that Rachel and Mycroft prepare tea in Every Breath.
I have to confess I was a bit staggered to
discover that the manuscript for Every
Breath actually refers to tea – in its various permutations – 44
times. That’s a heck of a lot of
tea. And most of the time it’s used as a
way for the characters to chill out, or release some tension. The act of tea-drinking calms Rachel down
after discovering a dead body (p35), while talking seriously with her brother
(p214), and while discussing clues with an informant (p181). It’s also a useful distraction for both
Rachel and Mycroft, when conversation gets too personal (p23, p167, p208), and
in other situations, apparently just for the hell of it.
So what is this strange tea-drinking
ritual? Well, it’s sort of up to the
individual. Mycroft might be
English-born, but that doesn’t stop him from making weird tea. But here’s the standard way of making tea, in
the Australian manner:
- Fill a kettle with enough fresh water to make a cup for yourself (and a detective friend, if one is on hand). Make sure you don’t use old water – reboiled water tastes stale.
- Grab a mug and stick a teabag in it – Lipton’s or Bushell’s, if you really want to do it Australian-style. Or if you prefer (and you want to go fancy) get a teapot and add one teaspoon of loose leaf black tea (or Early Grey, or English Breakfast, or Lapsong Suchong, or some other special sort) for every cup you plan to make.
- Pour freshly boiled water over the teabag in the mug, or the leaf tea in the pot. Let the tea steep – in other words, stand around for a few minutes and let the leaves infuse into the hot water.
- Pour from the teapot into your cup (use a tea strainer, so you don’t get lots of manky tea-leaves floating in your drink), or remove the teabag from your mug. Then add fresh milk, if you like white tea. There’s no point leaving the teabag in after you add milk – once the milk is in, the tea leaves stop infusing. I see people do that all the time though (philistines!). Milk removes some of the astringent, tannin flavour of the tea, and some people prefer their tea black.
- Add sugar if you fancy – usually one teaspoon is enough, but if you have a sweet tooth…
- Sip slowly (it’s hot! Or it should be if it’s any good) and enjoy!
So that’s how you do it! Australians inherited their tea-drinking
tendencies from the English (the colonial power who first dropped in…and
stayed), and we’ve never really let it go.
Even out in the bush, when you’re cooking over a campfire, you can drink
billy tea – which is loose tea or teabags boiled with water in a billy (like a
little metal pot with a suspended handle), sometimes with a handful of gum
leaves added in to give it a really outback flavour.
Tea is drunk in mugs, generally, or in nice
china cups, or if you’re far from civilisation, in tin pannikins. You can have it with a bikkie (biscuit) or if
you want to do it ‘proper’, you can cook damper (which is a kind of bread
cooked on the coals of a campfire) and eat damper with butter and golden syrup
while you drink your tea (yum!). And tea
is appropriate for almost every occasion – everyone loves a good cuppa!
If you really want the low-down on how to
make tea Mycroft-fashion, then check this out - I also made a little home video
to show you (you also get some rather embarrassing glimpses into my home and
workspace – excuse the mess!):
Anyway, however you prepare it or drink it,
I hope you’re enjoying a good cup of tea (or the hot beverage of your choice),
and taking the time to curl up with a good book – if that happens to be Every Breath, then even better! Jen, thanks for having me over to visit at
The Starry-Eyed Revue, and have a good week!
Xx Ellie
About the author:
Ellie Marney was born in Brisbane, and has lived in Indonesia, Singapore and India. Now she writes, teaches, talks about kid’s literature at libraries and schools, and gardens when she can, while living in a country idyll (actually a very messy wooden house on ten acres with a dog and lots of chickens) near Castlemaine, in north-central Victoria. Her partner and four sons still love her, even though she often forgets things and lets the housework go.
Ellie’s short stories for adults have won awards and been published in various anthologies. Every Breath is her first novel for young adults.
Find Ellie:
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Thank you so much, Ellie, for stopping by and sharing your special affinity for tea with us! I loved the tour of your workspace, too! And don't worry about the mess...as Albert Einstein said, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" :D
Be sure to check out the rest of the
Every Breath Blog Tour:
You guys absolutely have to check out this book. You can find my review
here if you need further convincing, but this novel is just about perfect: quirky, funny, captivating, and perfect for fans of Sherlock and/or mystery-solving teens.
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
{Blog Tour & Giveaway} Ellie Marney's Playlist for #EveryWord
Hey, guys! Thanks for checking out my stop on the Every Word Blog Tour to celebrate the US release! You might be living under a rock if you haven't heard anything about this series yet, but that's okay. You're definitely going to want to read it after you check out the author's playlist below! And you'll probably get the urge to dance, too. :)
Here's the blurb:
EVERY WORD SONGLIST
A giveaway, you say!?! Yep, one lucky winner from the US/Canada will receive their very own copy of Every Word!
Rules:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Thank you so much, Ellie, for stopping by and sharing your playlist with us! I love so many of the songs you featured!
Be sure to check out the rest of the Every Word Blog Tour:
Samantha at Bellsie Books
Mandy C. at Forever Young Adult
Eri at Airy Reads
Heather at Books and Quilts
Nicole at Reading Lark
Shelly at Books and Writing
Michelle at Michelle & Leslie’s Book Picks
Jen at The Starry-Eyed Revue (you are here!)
Amanda at Gun in Act One
Gillian at Writer of Wrongs
Shilpa at sukasareads.com
Sabrina at Hiver et Café
Adrienne at Books and Bassets
Michelle at FAB BOOK REVIEWS
Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer
Liz at Midnight Bloom Reads
Amy at Tripping Over Books
Rachel at The Readers Den
Lauren at Love is not a triangle
Kristen at My Friends Are Fiction
Morgan at Gone with the Words
Leanne at Author Leanne Dyck
You guys absolutely have to check out this series if you haven't already. It's insanely addicting, especially for a Sherlock fan like myself. Plus, it helps pass the time while we wait for the new Sherlock special! :) #Wattscroft forever!!!
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
{Blog Tour} Tea Time with Ellie Marney, author of Every Breath
Hey, guys! Today, I have the utmost pleasure in bringing you a guest post from the author of one of my favorite new series. The EVERY series focuses on Rachel Watts and James Mycroft and their Sherlockian-type adventures. This series is written by the immensely talented Ellie Marney, who also happens to be a native of Australia. I'll say it again: I've never met (or read!) an Aussie I didn't like, and Ellie is no exception.
In Every Breath, tea is mentioned -- and consumed! -- a lot. I like tea quite a bit, even hot tea, though it's not really all that favored in my neck of the woods. No, in the South, we drink the sweetest iced tea we can get our hands on. Anyway, because tea was so noteworthy in this novel, I asked Ellie to explore the tea-drinking custom as it relates to Every Breath. And she did us one better...she even provides us a demonstration! But first, a little about the book everyone's been talking about these past few weeks:
Here's the blurb:
But what’s the conventional way? Because Jen told me that in North America, tea isn’t usually drunk hot. She said that if you want a hot drink, you have a coffee, and you drink your tea iced, and very sweet…which seems practically sacrilegious to me! It’s certainly not the way I would make it, and definitely not the way that Rachel and Mycroft prepare tea in Every Breath.
Thank you so much, Ellie, for stopping by and sharing your special affinity for tea with us! I loved the tour of your workspace, too! And don't worry about the mess...as Albert Einstein said, "If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?" :D
Be sure to check out the rest of the Every Breath Blog Tour:
Shelly at Raindrops and Pages
Jo Ann at Journey of a Bookseller
Lisa at Bookish Broads
Jen at The Starry-Eyed Revue (review)
Shilpa at Sukasa Reads
Kristina at Book Club Sisters
Mandy C. at Forever Young Adult (Part 1)
Lauren at Love is not a triangle
Priyanka at Priyanka Reads
Rachel at The Reader’s Den
Mandy C. at Forever Young Adult (Part 2)
Michelle at Michelle & Leslie’s Book Picks
Christina at The Paperback Princesses
Shanika at Nick’s Book Blog
Yash at The Book Wars (Part 1)
Ann at Ann Towell
Dani at Refracted Light
Danielle at Love at First Page
Kat at Cuddlebuggery
Yash at The Book Wars (Part 2)
You guys absolutely have to check out this book. You can find my review here if you need further convincing, but this novel is just about perfect: quirky, funny, captivating, and perfect for fans of Sherlock and/or mystery-solving teens.
Tuesday, September 30, 2014
Review: Every Breath by Ellie Marney
Author: Ellie Marney
Series: Every, book #1
Publisher: Tundra Books
Publication Date: October 14, 2014
Source: finished copy from publisher
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
I love a good mystery as much as the next girl, but I'm not surprised by them much these days. Too often I find the mystery to be entirely too predictable and that aspect alone makes it hard to hold my interest. And I'll admit that in Every Breath, I did suspect the culprit early on, but there were just so many other elements that kept me captivated by this story. With stories like this, I'm usually looking at the bigger picture, trying to determine how everything's going to pan out, but with Every Breath, I was living in the moment, eager to spend each page with the characters as they worked the mystery out themselves. In short, I was happy to let Mycroft and Watts handle the investigating while I followed their shenanigans.
Thank goodness! The frustration from watching these two hem and haw around each other nearly did me in. Just about the time the sexual tension reaches a fever pitch, the dam finally breaks and we get one spectacular show. Once they do finally get to the point that they can openly admit their feelings for each other, it is the sweetest kind of romance. The slow-burn was well worth it, but by the point that they realized how they each felt, we already knew they'd each go to extraordinary lengths to protect one another and in support of each other.
I love the homage Marney's Every Breath pays to the original story, too: numerous mentions of Mycroft being "Sherlock's much-smarter brother", Homeless Dave being "Mycroft's very own Baker Street Irregular", etc. I've not read many Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but I've always loved how clever they were. Every Breath was no less clever but it was just such a refreshing spin on the old Sherlockian murder mystery.
Setting this novel in Melbourne, a city that's already a mystery to me, makes this story that much more captivating, too. Watts is practically an outsider herself, having grown up in the countryside of Australia, not a big city like Melbourne, and as she got to know the city better, so did I. It was kind of the perfect setup to draw a reader like myself in. And by that, I mean a reader who prefers when the setting feels like a character itself, the way that it's explored in the story. Also, I love Aussie slang...the fact that this wasn't changed in the US version endears the story to me that much more, makes it feel even more authentic.
Honestly, I think I've found my new favorite mystery series. The fact that it's written by yet another awesome Aussie is just a bonus. Another bonus: while some people are satisfied waiting for the next book to come out here in the States, impatient people like myself can order the UK/Aussie versions and get the rest of the story that much quicker. Which I will most definitely be doing with this series. =) This was such a fantastic debut and I can't wait for all of you to get a chance to meet Mycroft and Watts for yourselves!
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starryeyedjen
- I work with numbers by day, and I'm a mommy and avid reader by night. I'm a self-proclaimed Spreadsheet Queen, and I'll read anything you put in front of me. I seriously love all the books! And I adore audiobooks, too!
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