A real feeling of getting there
It’s all very good
timing. Last Saturday I caught up with my self-imposed writing deadlines: four
hours a day, 3,000 words. I was up to
date and even a little ahead by 9.00 p.m. My SCBWI
group met on that day and amongst many other very enjoyable and worthwhile activities
we reviewed last year’s goals. Mine had been simply to find more writing time.
Well that has happened. In 2017 I aim to finish my Schellberg Cycle and go
back to science fiction.
I may slip a little
now as I’m teaching at the University of Salford
again. I have two full days per week and this will last for twelve weeks with a
three week gap in the middle. Then there will be all the marking. I do enjoy it
though and at least now I’m just teaching. I do my research and writing in my
own time. I only have a little admin. I find working with the students actually
enhances my own writing. So, it’s a winner.
Bridge House
Bridge
House’s anthology Baubles continues to
sell. You can read a few extracts here. Salford
Stories is out there also. Both could do with a few more reviews. If you’ve
read them, do write a review for them. If you bought via Amazon, leave one
there. You can also leave reviews on Good Reads or your own blog. You may know of other places. I can also
offer review copies for free (PDF or e-mobi) but of course we then don’t get
the review on Amazon. But everything
helps and if you’d like a review copy, then reply to this email. If you do
review or have reviewed, please also send me a copy.
Our new annual anthology for 2107 will be Gliterary Tales. So, glittery stories that have a touch of
literature about them. I wonder what that will add to the debate about the
difference between literary and popular fictions? Debz Hobbs Wyatt
has got the call for submissions out: read the guidelines here.
Remember we’re also
offering to publish single-author collections. These are for authors we’ve
published before and they may include stories we’ve already published, ones
they’ve had published elsewhere and new ones. We’ll be putting a description
out about this soon but we’ve already had some enquiries. You may
recycle stories we’ve already included in another anthology, and you may reedit
these if you wish. You may also add in new stories. We’re aiming at a total
word count of between 30,000 and 80,000 words.
If you’re interested in this, contact me here.
We’re being a bit
cheeky and getting a little political. Are we are in danger of getting our
books burnt? Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. We’re doing an extra
anthology, Citizens of Nowhere, with
the theme of the global citizen. Oh, I hope we don’t upset Ms May. We’re
commissioning just over half of the work from known authors but there is room
for a few open submissions. Stories can be “one you prepared earlier” or a
brand new one, with a cut-off date of 31 January, though this may very well
be extended. Stories between 1,000 and 4,000 words. Submit to editor at
bridgehousepublishing dot co dot uk.
Yes, okay so the
cut-off date has gone. We’ll now keep going until we’ve got enough, so please
submit. We’re currently about two thirds of the way there.
CafeLit
Remember, we’re
always open to submissions. Find out how here. I’ve
been encouraging my students to submit. I’m beginning to see some of their work
appearing.
The Best of
CaféLit 5 is now available. There are some lovely stories in this. I’m very
pleased that I have a story in this collection. Order your copy here.
Again we need more
reviews for this. Have you read them? Could you write us a review? And again, I’m
offering free copies as PDFs or e-mobi files. Again, also send me a copy of the
review.
Chapeltown
We’re currently looking for collections of Flash Fiction.
See our submissions page here. We have now
signed up five writers already and I’ll be putting out one of my collections as
well soon. Take a look here.
Our first volume is out.
See it here. Congratulations to Allison Symes Again,
reviews, reviews please. Email me for free electronic copies.
This call for
submissions will be closing soon so hurry if you want to submit.
Chapeltown is also
excited to be publishing Colin Wyatt’s
Who will be my friend? – a delightful
picture book about friendship and accepting others. Yes, Colin is Debz’s dad.
He is a Disney licensed illustrator and his latest publication is The Jet Set. We feel very
honoured to be publishing him.
Creative Café
We’re always
looking for new cafés. If you visit one
of the cafés in the project
and would like to write a review of between 250 and 350 words – nice, too, to
have a couple of pictures – send it to me here.
Do the same if you find a new café.
I’m now going to send out a welcome letter to each new café
that’s added. This will also offer them the opportunity to join the mailing
list.
I’m also now proactively encouraging cafes to stock The Best of CafeLit. Do you know anyone who
might like to stock it? We can offer a 35% discount to retailers. Query gill at
cafelit dot co dot uk.
The Red Telephone
We are currently
open for submissions. Hoorah! We’re looking for the next great YA novel. Check
out the details here. We’re particularly open to speculative
fiction but we’ll also like anything that is well written and
well-targeted. I welcome others but send
sample chapters and synopsis first. The full details are on the site.
I am now working
on Richard Bradburn’s Evernrood. We
are still open for submissions but this will only be for a limited time now.
Our mentoring
programme is now full. I’ll update you from time to time on how that is going.
Book tours
If you’re a Bridge House / Red Telephone / CaféLit / Chapeltown
author and you want to get serious about book tours, consider our author’s kit.
We provide twenty books you take to the bookshop and the bookshop can put these
through the till. We then invoice the bookshop, with a 35% discount for any
sold and top up your supply to twenty. At the end of the tour you can either
pay for the remaining books at cost + 10% or keep them until you’ve sold them
and then pay the normal price of 75% of RRP. The latter can in any case be set
against royalties. You need to allow at least ten days between events. Contact
me here if you’re
interested in this.
School Visits
I’m proactively promoting my school visits associated with The House on Schellberg Street
project. I’ve now developed a whole workshop for this. It starts off with a
board game, includes some role play and creative writing and ends with a
discussion. I’m offering this half price to schools that apply in January 2017
and schools that apply in February 2017 can book two for the price of one. Contact me here.
Also, I’m developing a kit for schools so that they can
deliver the workshop themselves. This is almost ready. If you would like to be
notified when this is ready, contact me here.
Query for a school visit here.
I am also happy to do standard author visits which include
readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.
Costs= travel expenses plus £400 for a full day and £200 for
a half day. This includes all materials and some freebies. Two schools near to
each other might consider splitting the day and halving the travel expenses and
fees. This is open to negotiation in any case.
Books and short stories
I continue to make good progress on Shooting Hitler.
Clara’s Story is
being serialised. The cover makes this theme quite clear. The novel can now be
found on Channillo. You may read it here.
Clara’s Story is
the second in the Schellberg circle. All five stories cover roughly the same
period and are very much happening in and associated with Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust. They can be read in any order. The stories overlap to some extent
but where they repeat we see the happening form another point of view. For
instance The House on Schellberg Street
is mainly about a young girl, Renate, who comes to England on the
Kindertranpsort. Clara’s Story is
about her grandmother. Girl in a Smart Uniform
explains how at least one German girl associated with the story became a Nazi –
and then gave it all up. Shooting Hitler
is Renate’s mother’s version of events. In The
Round Robin we learn about what happens to Renate’s friends.
Upcoming events
Note for your diary: the London Bridge House / CafeLit / Chapeltown
/ Red Telephone celebration will be 2 December at the Princess of Wales again. People published
2017 will be invited first and then it will be open to all authors of our imprints.
You are in case invited to bring one friend at the first call. Last year we “sold
out” – the event is free but ticketed. I’m
planning a similar event in Manchester in the summer. Watch this space.
Giveaway
This month I’m
giving away free copies of the e-book (Kindle) of Spooking. I'm also offering:
·
An extract
from Clara’s story
·
Some seminars
for schools about The House on Schellberg
Street
·
Some
fiction writing exercises
·
The opening
chapters from my manual for writing the young adult novel
Sign up for all freebies here.
Writing opportunities
Remember I keep a
full list of vetted opportunities on my writing
blog. See them here. New
ones are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and
take out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If
you would like to be on that list, sign up here.
Happy reading and
writing.
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