My books & writing
1. Cameron’s Choice – middle grade fiction
Published by Palavro Publishing (an imprint of the Arkbound Foundation www.palavro.org). To request review copies, discount codes & images, please contact Riyan Hago at riyan@arkfound.org
Book launch, April 2024, at Daunt Bookshop, Summertown, Oxford
Review by Adelle Purdham, Canadian author of I Don’t Do Disability And Other Lies I’ve Told Myself (Dundurn Press)
Review: In this coming-of-age YA story, friendships are formed and broken, as one young man, Cameron, struggles to find himself and define his identity in the wake of his father’s sudden departure. Cameron’s Choice (Palavro Publishing) deals heavily with themes of conformity, sexism and gender roles, and interpersonal conflict. In this fast-paced narrative, our protagonist moves from one bad decision to the next, with glimmers of his authentic self shining in the spaces between. Bettoni demonstrates an intimate understanding of the human psyche as she delves into the depth, complexity, and pain of exclusion of adolescent relationships. A need to belong drives the main character to lengths outside of himself, and we are challenged, as readers, to consider: how far would I go? When it comes to bullying behaviour, Bettoni leaves us with the simple message: everyone has a choice.
Back cover – review by author Clare Azzopardi
Goodreads review of Cameron’s Choice
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/211058038-cameron-s-choice#CommunityReview
MaltArti – TV Malta episode – interview
Watch it on YouTube below.
Malta Book Festival, 2024
2. Inner Demons – YA fiction
This unpublished “own voices” manuscript has a protagonist loosely based on me. Jessica, who has Down Syndrome, falls for the school’s superstar, Cameron. Can their relationship survive?
Artivisti Award – to work on Inner Demons
I was one of the four recipients of the 2021/22 Artivisti award by Arts Council Malta and Agenzija Zghazagh (Malta’s National Youth Agency). I received a mentorship from Author Clare Azzopardi, and a €4000 grant towards my project called “Changing Perceptions”. My Artivisti vision: “To break down society’s assumptions about what we think is normal and what we think is different.” My project involved working on “Inner Demons”. My developmental editor was Madeleine Mankey.
Inner Demons manuscript reading event
MaltArti – TVM episode on reading event
Watch at: https://www.maltarti.tv/portfolio/artivisti/
3. Self-published books
My first book, “The adventures of Edmund and Martha”, is a collection of stories from when I was 8 years old. It’s mostly fiction but some stories are loosely based on my own experiences too. Each chapter starts with a scanned page of my writing. My parents edited the book only for punctuation and spelling, to try and keep my writing as authentic as possible.
The other books were written between the ages of twelve and sixteen. The last two were professionally edited. “A mermaid in two worlds” was my first attempt at writing a novel.
They are available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=angela+bettoni&i=stripbooks&crid=2BYJXTC791YHA&sprefix=angela+bettoni%2Cstripbooks%2C142&ref=nb_sb_noss
