I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the KEEP
WALKING, RHONA BEECH by Kate Tough Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter
the giveaway!
KEEP WALKING, RHONA BEECH
Author: Kate Tough
Release Date: April 4, 2019
Publisher: Abacus
Formats: Paperback, eBook, Audiobook
Pages: 320
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it: Goodreads,
Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD
'Incredibly insightful, funny and poignant' Helen Sedgwick
I get up. I go to work. I spend the whole day waiting for the words on my screen to make sense. In the commuter broth of the carriage home, tears run in hot lines to my jaw and for a minute or so, I let them.
Nothing has turned out quite how Rhona Beech thought: she's been swapping one so-so job for another on an annual basis...and now her nine-year relationship has ended abruptly. When her lukewarm efforts to adjust to the changes in her life are thrown entirely up in the air by some unwelcome news, Rhona has to think again.
Her sardonic, funny, poignant attempts to find an answer to the questions she's facing are helped by a cast of friends, strangers and trained professionals. Funny and tender, Keep Walking, Rhona Beech is a beautifully written and brilliantly observant satire on relationships, friendship and life
Previously published as Head for the Edge, Keep Walking by Cargo Publishing.
A deleted scene or a scene from another character's POV:
Over a decade ago, before the novel existed, this scene is what started the writing process. For me, it located her general experience and circumstances. It used to be the opening scene but was deleted when the character and voice evolved beyond it.
The scene was triggered by an anecdote. A friend mentioned that his female friend had been to see a one man show of ambulatory theatre and she was the only person who’d bought a ticket. So, one audience member following one actor around a theatre! Awkward… And it struck me as the kind of situation someone would end up in if they were newly single and getting out into the world again.
One Man Show
I picked this because it was close to the office and forty minutes long; now shaping up to be forty long minutes. Time to start getting out, I’d told myself, get used to doing things on my own. This isn’t the degree of ‘on my own-ness’ I’d had in mind. I could leave. I’m staying in case someone else arrives before it starts, knowing that the longer I stay the more I risk my window to go. But poor guy, I should stay put for him. If he’s having this bad a run, at least he’ll get his chance to perform.
What am I thinking? I’ll hate it. I’ll feel unbearably self-conscious. I’m going. I’m turning on my heel...the usher is closing the door over… and a man in a loin cloth is before me. I’m staying.
But the lights haven’t gone down. It should be dark for me and light for him. Those are the rules. Yet we’re four feet apart, equally lit: he can see what I think of his play. Will I smile throughout (look how much I’m enjoying this!) or maybe mirror his emotions (look how much you’re affecting me!)? For now, I’m grinning in acknowledgement of the situation. So… this is a little unusual? I’m sure he’ll smile too, laugh or something. Not a flicker. He’s off into his monologue. The epitome of ‘the show must go on’, he’s going on and on and on. About his father. It’s not Shakespeare, I can understand the language, but less so the meaning because of his erratic syllabic emphasis. He’s not holding back. Can he not see it’s just me? A dead giveaway, not a regular theatre goer – not earnestly nodding in a well-cut jacket – he doesn’t have to go to all this trouble. Actually, yes. Keep going with your monologue, that must be nine minutes gone already.
“Many long days I walked...” and he starts walking towards the arch. If I let him go far enough, till he’s through to the next room, could I bolt? What are the conventions of promenade theatre, if the audience doesn’t go with you do you carry on? Or do you retrace and fetch them like an auxiliary on a school outing, cuff them round the ear and then proceed as Jesus? I think that’s who he’s meant to be. I wouldn’t have thought there was anything fresh to say but maybe biblical dramatization is fashionable again. What do I know? Thing is, I get a strong sense that regardless of whether I follow him, he’s going, because he’s not an actor anymore. Right now, to him, he’s Jesus and he’s going to keep being Jesus until the piece is played through.
Realising he’s fully immersed in his character, I want to go with him. For the sake of art itself, his forty minutes of commitment should be honoured with audience commitment. I rush to catch up, softly, on the balls of my feet. He turns and there I am. This room has props: Turkish style rug on the floor, urns, jugs and pots with dried fruit in. A marketplace, presumably. He’s talking about his mother. He asks me for a date. What? Oh. Date. He thinks I’m the market vendor… I kneel down, place a date on a leaf and hand it up to him. “Very moist,” I say. “Would you like to buy some?” Does Jesus pay for stuff? “Pistachios, on the house,” and I offer him the pot. Calm it, lady, it’s his play. I remain kneeling because I no longer know if I am the audience or the cast and it seems less intrusive to stay put.
He’s talking about the kindness of strangers. Tears well. His hands are flat above his heart. He’s talking about a purpose. A passion. About the pressures of being a man “…bound by flesh.” He’s walking to the next archway. I grab a couple of almonds and go after him. This room has a prop too. He’s lying on it. A Bedouin-style divan scattered with cushions. “Woman, show mercy, share yourself. Let us praise God in union.” Now I could say no and yank the stylus off the turntable but I don’t want to. It’s almost a dare. Am I brave enough? He already believes I’m someone else; it’s a small leap to fulfil the expectation. I’ll be whatever he thinks I am. I make an all fours move onto the ground-level bed, lie beside him and wait for the action to continue.
He does it like they do in old films; cuts straight to after the fact, “…oh woman, you have renewed me.” He explains how God works through me in all deeds, even that. I’m feeling quite chuffed with myself and my obvious skill in the bedroom arts. He stands, offers his hand to help me up. He talks on about the great task ahead, his calling. I don’t want him to have a calling. I want to be his calling. “I must show others what glory is within them, that God is not separate, we are all God…” He walks through a curtain and I hear a door close.
That must be the end. I feel wretched. Slapped in the face with everything I’ve been trying to transcend recently. Indeed, you are a man. He has the decency not to come back out and get a clap. Can you imagine? One audience member clapping one actor. I wouldn’t know where to look, or how long to go on.
Kate
Tough worked for the Scottish Parliament for six years before returning to her
home city, gaining a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of
Glasgow. She writes poetry and fiction rooted in realism, humour and sometimes
difficult truths.
She creates astute observational detail in fiction, and explores painful moments, that readers could recognise as themselves or their friends.
Her novel, Keep Walking, Rhona Beech, is the revised 2nd edition of Head for the Edge, Keep Walking. Her short fiction and poetry appear in journals such as, The Brooklyn Review, The Texas Review and The Found Poetry Review. Kate’s poetry pamphlet, tilt-shift, was Runner Up in the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award, 2017.
Kate's been a literacy volunteer and creative writing tutor in many community settings. www.katetough.com
Tour
Schedule:
Week
One:
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11/9/2020 |
Interview |
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11/9/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/10/2020 |
Interview |
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11/10/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/11/2020 |
Guest Post |
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11/11/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/12/2020 |
Excerpt |
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11/12/2020 |
Excerpt |
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11/13/2020 |
Review |
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11/13/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
Week
Two:
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11/16/2020 |
Review/Instagram Stop |
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11/16/2020 |
Review/Instagram Stop |
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11/17/2020 |
Review |
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11/17/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/18/2020 |
Review |
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11/18/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/19/2020 |
Review |
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11/19/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
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11/20/2020 |
Excerpt |
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11/20/2020 |
Instagram Stop |
I have been looking for a funny, light hearted book & I think this is it!
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