Novel success for Lisburn teacher
by JENNY MONROE
A LISBURN teacher has had a second novel published which is receiving
rave reviews.
Lynda Tavakoli's 'Of Broken Things' is a story set in early 1900's in Ireland. It describes the harshness of life at that time and in particular of a young boy's struggle to survive.
Talking about her new book Lynda, a special needs teacher at Tonagh Primary School, commented: You could say that Of Broken Things' was a labour of love. It took a great deal longer to write than Attachment' but then it's a completely different type of novel and I enjoy having diversity in my writing. There are many stories behind the story if I'm to be honest about it."
She continued: " My father grew up on an Island on Lough Erne and the small family farm was a second home to me and my brother and sister as we too were growing up.
I have so many memories of the place and of the tales passed down within the community and many of these are fictionally interlaced throughout the novel. But although my inspiration has come from a certain setting I didn't want to be specific about where the novel took place, so you'll find that it's an 'Irish' story as opposed to being 'North' or 'South' of the border. I kind of like this idea of 'wholeness' when I think of Ireland."
Lynda, who thanked the Lisburn Arts Advisory Council for their support and her publisher David James Publishing a Northern Irish company, explained how she began by writing human interest stories for local newspapers.
"I started writing by default really as it wasn't something I'd ever thought seriously about as a profession. However, sadly one of my best friends passed away while I was out of the country which prompted me to write a tribute to her for a newspaper. They published it and afterwards invited me to submit other human interest stories for their 'Female' section. That unexpected confidence boost helped me realise that people might actually take an interest in what I had to say. Later I signed up for a creative writing course at my local Arts Centre because I wanted to try my hand at fiction. To my surprise I loved writing short stories and poetry and everything went from there."
Things are certainly bright for the writer who also happens to be one
of the winners of the 'Mail on Sunday' novel competition, and will
attend an award ceremony for this next Thursday in London.
Lynda's novel is an e-book so it isn't available in the shops but can be
purchased on Amazon as a Kindle download or ordered through them in the
post as a hard copy.Lynda Tavakol
Ulster Star
14/10/2011
