Written by Frances Ive
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Today I welcome Frances Ive to my blog, and thank her for providing an extract from her independently published debut novel, Finding Jo.
The blurb had me intrigued, but the extract tipped me over the edge, so Finding Jo just had to be added to my reading list!
Frances Ive has been writing non fiction books, mainly about health, for years, and is also a freelance journalist.
The blurb had me intrigued, but the extract tipped me over the edge, so Finding Jo just had to be added to my reading list!
Frances Ive has been writing non fiction books, mainly about health, for years, and is also a freelance journalist.
The blurb:
Finding JoAt breaking point Jo deserts her dysfunctional family and possessive boyfriend, making an uncharacteristic escape to the Himalayas in a bid for freedom and self-knowledge. The peace she finds there helps her to unravel her turmoil, but unexpected challenges test her new-found equilibrium to the limit
Finding Jo focuses on relationships between families, lovers and friends, and the resentment and long-held grievances that threaten to destroy them. Jo’s quest for a deeper purpose in life acts as a catalyst to her family, indicating that willingness to change and grow enables people to find happiness.
Women’s contemporary Fiction
FINDING JO EXTRACT: Delving deep
INTRO: Jo left the country without telling a soul. She didn’t even understand herself but she knew she had come to the end of her tether. In the safety of the Jasanghari retreat in the Himalayas, she opens up to her mentor, Rasi, about Christmas Day. This was the last straw for her, when she decided she was going to get away from them all and her possessive boyfriend and escape to find peace of mind.
‘Last Christmas things got really ugly and a plan started to hatch in my mind.’
‘What you mean ugly?’ Rasi asks.
‘Sorry, I mean things were going very badly.’
‘In which way?’
‘Everything. I had a terrible evening out with Rob on Christmas Eve where he got drunk and made a fool of himself and me, and then he came home with me when I didn’t want him to.’
‘How?’
I’ve noticed that his questions are always quite short.
‘Yes you may say how,’ I sigh.
‘I suppose I’m so soft that I let him come home with me because he could get quite nasty when he was drunk and it was easier to do that.’
‘Do you think saying what you want?’
‘I don’t know if you know what people are like when they get drunk. It’s just impossible, particularly with him – you can’t reason with him or anything, so no, I didn’t, because I felt I couldn’t. Quite frankly Rasi this is why I ran away, because I can’t face people and tell them what I think.’
‘Is it easy way to run away?’
‘It feels it because it’s so hard to talk to people who don’t want to listen.’
‘But Jo that is you, not these people. Maybe Rob, he want listen but you need be heard so it’s you who tell people.’
‘How? What can I say?’
‘It is no good me tell you what you say, you have to feel for it. I say that you shouldn’t let people treat you like this and you say, ‘No’, but it has to come from here.’
He rested his hand on his heart. That gesture again.
‘So why can’t I do it?’
‘You can do. You find it difficult, but you can do. Why is it difficult? What you afraid of?’
‘In what way, Rasi?’
‘Why you don’t say, “Listen me, I have something to tell you about me and I want you hear me” and then you say what is?’
‘Oh God, that sounds so difficult! I’m not sure anyone would listen though.’
I’m sitting directly opposite to him. So neatly turned out, with every black hair in place, and his eyebrows almost look as if they’ve been shaped. His short sleeved calico shirt is white and pristine and his face is serious. I bet some of the women fall for him. Thank goodness he’s not my type. Too organised maybe. Perhaps I’m attracted to chaotic people.
He leans towards me watching me studying his face. Now I feel stupid, but at the same time I appreciate that his big brown eyes hold such depth, such emotion. What a lovely guy.
‘Yes. People who think they are important and, you know, confident and that other people must listen to them. If you want, and only if you want we work together to discover together why you think you not important. You change belief so that you speak and make people hear you.’
‘How do I do that?’
‘Here I will help you. It take time, but you also need to sing.’
‘Sing. Rasi – you haven’t heard my voice.’
‘I don’t need that. When you meet Chris – the musician who visits – you will understand that we all can sing well. Yes, even you Jo. We put, what you call crap, on ourselves and not speak about, but when you learn sing you more confident.’
‘I am not so sure. I wasn’t any good at singing when I was at school. When is this Chris here?’
‘He’s not here now, but he coming few weeks. I tell everyone when he here. You go along and you see what I talk about. I have stopped talking about the subject we started – we, what’s the word?’
‘Digressed.’
‘Maybe that’s the word but I don’t know it.’
He laughs gently, still watching me.
‘We were back at last Christmas,’ I say in a hushed voice. ‘I’m afraid my story is more of the same where I didn’t say anything and just kept putting up with everything that was driving me mad. The Christmas day with the family was awful and Rob came too and everyone was pretending it was all right but it was terrible.
‘Everyone was bitching at each other, my mother was in a state - from too much booze, sorry drink - my brother, Michael, and his wife were being a nightmare as usual – they argue with each other always. And Beth, my sister, I haven’t told you about her. Think of someone who always likes to be the centre of attention – that’s her. And the only saving grace was my nephew and niece, Stephen and Charlotte who are about the only normal people in the family.’
| Author Bio – Frances Ive |
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 A career as a journalist/PR led to health writing for UK nationals newspapers and consumer magazines. Out of the blue I was inspired to write a novel, Finding Jo, which has taken some years to come to fruition, self-publishing in January 2021. I travelled a lot in my 20s and I have drawn on my three months’ trip to India in Finding Jo. |
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