If Everyone Knew Every Plant And Tree is a charming coming-of-age tale and the debut novel from writer Julia Johnston.

The novel tells of Oliver and the strain put upon his family and friends when his younger sister Lily suffers a long-term sickness. This may sound like morbid subject matter but Johnston fills her novel with bursts of joy and the result is a young adult novel that is both heart-warming and heart-breaking in equal measure.

Oliver is a brilliant first-person narrator and Johnston perfectly captures the voice of a 21st century teenager, with references to texting and Facebook and YouTube naturally occurring.

Thankfully, Oliver is not the stereotypical troubled teen, which can be a tired stalwart of young adult fiction. Yes, he argues with his parents, gets into trouble and has an unrequited crush on a girl at school, but Johnston creates a much richer character than the average literary teenager.

His imagination will often run away with him in fantastic flurries of stream-of-consciousness. At one point, he imagines that his brother will become the first skateboarding priest. Later in the novel, he has ambitions to be the horticultural equivalent to Banksy, planting renegade gardens across London.

Oliver enjoys art, discusses music with his grandfather, bags a role in the school production of Hamlet and has a fascination with horticulture (hence the title). All of this means that the novel is peppered with cultural references. Johnston clearly had a lot of fun researching this novel, particularly the scene in the British Art Gallery and the loving description of each painting.

Johnson has a fantastic grasp of language and incorporates the titular plants and trees into Oliver’s narrative voice, often with a touch of humour. My personal favourite is the name of the local plant shop, The Fuschia’s Bright, which is a pun that made me smile every time.

The supporting cast is large and equally well-drawn. All have bags of personality, whether it be Oliver’s older brothers, his grandparents, the nurse who cares for Lily or his teachers at school. Everyone is handled with care and none are lazily dismissed as background noise. We even manage to sympathise with Oliver’s parents, despite their failed attempts to understand their son.

A particular favourite with readers of the novel is Oliver’s best friend Kamal and rightly so. Kamal has his own sad background but brings stacks of energy to every scene, whether it be Shakespearian swear words, rapid-fire dialogue or the odd rhyming poem. The hyperactive Kamal is a great counterpart to Oliver’s more introspective soul and their scenes are always lots of fun.

Naturally, there is a serious aspect to the novel considering the story is driven by a young girl’s ongoing sickness. Johnston does not sugar coat this experience for the potentially young readership, choosing to depict the grief, the depression and the hospital scenes in thorough detail. This is a wise move and assumes maturity on the part of her target readership, which will no doubt be appreciated. Like Oliver himself, teenagers do not like to be patronised.

As with any coming-of-age story, it is impossible to offer a neat ending because, quite simply, life goes on. I particularly hoped for more closure on Oliver’s relationship with Poppy, which began as an important focus of the story but took a back seat when the family drama intensified. 

However, there is time to fix that. Oliver’s story has the potential to continue in a series as long and successful as the Adrian Mole books and, happily, Johnston is already working on a sequel.

The fuschia is bright for Johnston.

After The Interview is the second corporate thriller by author AA Abbott and offers a fast-paced, interweaving narrative with a vast cast. Add to that a London setting and you essentially have the literary equivalent of a Guy Ritchie film.

The story revolves around a London-based company called GardNet, headed by a volatile but socially-awkward chief executive called Jed Gardner. GardNet need to buy a Birmingham-based company's call centre in order to retain their largest client, however a grudge between the two chief executives complicates the negotiation. Matters become more tricky when Jed Gardner employs his former university house mate, Boris, to advise on tax implications because Jed is in love with Boris' fiancée.

If business negotiations and love triangles sound unappealing to you then fear not. The story contains enough fraud, blackmail, violence, murder and sex to keep you reading on. As with many corporate thrillers, everything begins to take on an intense, over-the-top level of reality, similar to a pulp fiction novel. Happily, this only serves to make the story more enjoyable.

That said, there are several moments where you will have to suspend your belief. We are repeatedly told that the character Boris looks like Boris Johnson, yet he regularly seduces attractive women! I can't quite imagine the Mayor of London doing that!

Nevertheless, After The Interview is an addictive page-turner. AA Abbott offers short Dan Brown-style chapters, which swiftly jump between characters - chief executives, American journalists, fraudsters, a fired concierge, a dominatrix and more - to ensure the story-telling remains fresh and engaging.

Due to all of the corruption, infidelity and manipulation, it is hard to find a sympathetic character, which can make for quite unsavoury reading. However, rather than worry about finding a hero, it is best to just go along for the ride. Suffice it to say, a few characters do discover their decency towards the end of the novel and it is not the ones that you would expect.

AA Abbott's second novel does not disappoint and shows why she deserves to be a rising name in the genre of corporate thrillers.

For more on AA Abbott, you can visit her website.

Authors now have to be very proactive in promoting their work. Many writers are good at marketing novels effectively on Twitter but offline promotion is equally important. Face-to-face connections are often more lasting and a captive audience is extremely rare in this age of social media saturation. Therefore, I strongly recommend you organise some spoken word events in your area.

I organised my first spoken word event last Tuesday, which took the form of a Meet The Authors evening at The Big Comfy Bookshop. 

The event was a great opportunity for myself and the other authors to promote our novels. I read two short stories to the audience, spoke with lots of avid readers, provided the student journalists with free review copies, met a representative of another writing group and even sold a few copies of my books. Not bad for an evening's work.

Try organising an event yourself. Here are some tips to get you started.

1. A Small Independent Venue - independent venues are very encouraging of community events and they are unlikely to charge. Look for a venue which is fairly small because spoken word events rarely attract large numbers but also aim for a venue which serves refreshments. For this reason, coffee shops are ideal. You could also look for a venue that encourages reading, such as a bookshop or local library, because their everyday customer base are more likely to attend your event.

2. A Strong Line-Up - you need some good authors to perform because you owe your audience a good time. Remember, a good author for a spoken word event has to be more then simply a strong writer. They also have to be confident and competent when reading to a large audience, as well as happy to speak with the audience members informally at the end of the evening which is when most of the 'business' takes place. Charisma is essential.

I would recommend choosing authors from different genres because your audience members will each have different reading tastes and you want to ensure there is something for everyone. Variation will also lead to a more exciting evening.

3. Personal Invites - there are plenty of tired ways to promote an event: a Facebook invite, a mass email to your colleagues, putting up a poster in the staff room, and so on. These are rarely successful. You have to ask yourself: why would my friends give up their evening for this? Do my friends even like reading?

A better approach is to send personal invitations to people who have an active interest in story-telling. Email local writing groups and reading groups, both of which can be found with a quick online search. Make the most of local universities too: invite the culture editors from the student newspaper and message any student societies with a focus on creative writing. Contact details for these will be on the Students' Union website. At my event last week, I managed to attract journalists from two student newspapers - The Boar (Warwick) and The Source (Coventry) - which could lead to reviews on both campuses.

4. Hosting - choose a good host to hold the night together. As organiser, you may wish to do this yourself. A good host should be confident, welcoming and look like they are enjoying themselves. Organisation is also key. They should plan short introductions for each author which reference their writing achievements. This is a nice courtesy for the authors and will build anticipation for the audience. A few jokes will also help warm up the evening.

5. Set Targets - spoken word events are enjoyable but you should make sure you achieve something for your efforts. It is therefore worth writing a few goals before the event to help you stay focussed. Your goals could include any of the following: a) sell some books. b) swap books with a fellow writer on the agreement of a review exchange. c) provide journalists with review copies. d) hand out business cards to drive people to your website. e) gain email addresses to add to your newsletter mailing list.

I hope these tips help when you are planning your next event. If you happen to be organising an event in the Midlands (UK) then I would happily be part of your line-up. You can email me at [email protected].