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| Wishing all of my followers the best for 2018 |
So now the old
year is ending and the new one is just about to begin. I'm pleased to have had
a few short stories published and one academic paper. I'm enjoying working on
my first play script and The House of
Clementine, my fourth novel in the Peace
Child series is now beginning to flow.
For my birthday I
was given the Scrivener
software package. I'm still getting used to driving it but I've already
completed one whole project in it - a short story – and I've transferred The House of Clementine and The House on Schellberg Street (play script)
into it. I can see how it helps with planning and keeping track of parts of the
story. I love the synopsis feature and the fact that you can attach key words
to any section you write. It's also so easy to reorder your work.
There's still a
lot I have to learn, but so far I'm loving it.
I've also almost
finished my book on marketing. Many of you on this list will soon receive that
as a gift.
1940s Group
I've personally
found Virginia Woolf's diaries interesting. They're informative anyway for any
writer. They show much of her process and a lot is very familiar even though
she was from another time. The later entries are all set in the 1940s and she
provides a vivid though intriguingly matter-of-fact view of living in England during
World War II. She and her husband lost their house on Tavistock Square. Her last
entry was 8 March 1941 and she committed suicide on 28 March 1941. Read it here.
Recently also for
this group I've been sourcing other books set in the 1940s. There are a lot of
these and some of them are better than others. We're really looking for stories
and even pieces of non-fiction that give us insight into the era. If they're
well written and engaging as well, so much the better.
This is a Facebook
group for those of us who write about the 1940s. This group is for all
people who write about the 1940s. Fiction and non-fiction, for young and old.
Topics might then be: the Holocaust, World War II, Civilian Experience (all
sides) and the battle front. We can exchange ideas about research and marketing.
We may promote books and stories, - the last day of every month and on launch /
release day. In particular, we might work together to make use of the many
1940s' weekends that take place.
Dreamteam
The Dream Team
continues to grow. Find members here.
This is a personal recommendation. Initially I intend to use
my Dream Team a lot myself but gradually I would add in people that friends and
friends of friends have recommended.
What happens?
You sign up to a mailing list and every time a request comes
in we mail it out to you or the enquirer contacts you directly via my web site.
The conversation then carries on between you and the person making the request.
You may also have a page set up on my blog and you may update that once a
year.
Interested? You may sign up for more than one category.
Beta readers sign up here.
Reviewers sign up here.
Editors sign up here.
Illustrators sign up here.
Designers sign up here.
Proof-readers sing
up here.
DO REMEMBER THAT
AT ANY TIME YOU’RE APPROACHED AND YOU’RE BUSY IT’S PERFECTLY FINE TO SAY NO.
Bridge House
Big news. From
tomorrow we're accepting submissions for our 2018 anthology. The theme this
time is Crackers. We don't mean just the Christmas sort. We're looking for stories
that amuse, certainly, though. It would be good to have a few that give us
great big belly laughs, but also welcome those that just make you smile.
Another interpretation of "crackers" might be madness. So think Black Mirror, Inside Number 9, Kafka's Trial,
Yes Minister, Yes Prime Minister, Catch
22. Got one of those in you? Give it a go! Full submission details here.
We're getting quite
a few books out now. Here are the details about our latest books and the links
to buy them on Amazon.
Debz's Canvey Island
writers' group, Tales from the Upper Room,
retails at £7.00. £1.50 from every sale goes to the Havens Hospices www.Havenshhospices.org.uk . You
can find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tales-Upper-Room-Janice-Gilbert/dp/1907335196
Glit-er-ary is our 2017 anthology. Quote from the back
blurb: "You will learn that all that glitters is most certainly not gold.
The stories are funny, sad, poignant …. The glitter comes in shades of dark and
light. Find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Glit-er-ary-Debz-Hobbs-Wyatt-ebook/dp/B077DV848P/
Then there is Citizens of Nowhere. I'll confess that
Theresa May both infuriated and inspired me when she said that global citizens
are citizens of nowhere. What a great title for a book. So, I approached
several writers I know who I thought might feel the same. Not all of them had
the time or the inspiration but several have contributed. A few stories that
were submitted to Glit-er-ary seemed
more suitable for this collection. Jenny Palmer also has a story in here. This
will be the fourth time that we've published this one. She is on the CaféLit
site, in the Best of CaféLit, in her own collection and in this book. Debz and
I have also put our money where our mouths are. We each have a story in the
anthology. Find it here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Citizens-Nowhere-Gill-James-ebook/dp/B077DD7XN3/
Whatever your politics are, you
shouldn't find anything to offend here but maybe something to make you sad, to
give you hope or to make you think.
We've produced a
couple of book trailers. Do take a look and share them.
We’re getting plenty
of interest in our 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. The description for this is now
on the web site. We’ve already had some enquiries and we’re currently working on
several anthologies. 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 70,000 words.
Dawn Knox's Extraordinary
is now out. It is available here.
If you’re interested in having a single author collection, contact
me here.
Also in progress are collections by Paul Bradley, Phyllis
Burton, Jesse Falzoi, Jenny Palmer, Dianne Stadhams and Paul Williams. Several
other Bridge House authors have applied and they're in a bit of a queue but I'm
sure we'll accept them. After all we know them.
CafeLit
Stories are now
all being posted at 4.00 p,m, Afternoon Teatime, Kaffee and Kuchen time and it's also when the
kids are home from school. Just the right time for a cuppa and a good story.
We're getting
quite a few submissions now but still not quite up to one a day. Sadly, of
course, we have to reject some.
In December we had
stories from Gail Aldwin, Sharon Boothroyd, Alan Cadman, Nichola Cavalier, Derek
Corbett, Ann Dixon, Dawn Knox, Roger Noons, Jenny Palmer, Allison Symes, Sandy
Wilson and Robin Wrigley. There's one of mine in there, too. We managed to get
one for every day of Advent. Onwards! Let's
keep up the momentum and get one out a day in 2018. Have a go and let all of
your other writing friends know.
We're always open
to submissions. Find out to submit here. Remember,
this gives you some exposure, you can add in a short CV each time, and there's
always the chance that your work might be accepted for the annual anthology.
The Best of CaféLit 6 has been produced and copies are on sale. As
usual we welcome reviews. I can let you have a PDF or an e-mobi copy if you're
willing to review. You can also buy copies here. I'll shortly
be working on The Best of CaféLit 7.
On offer for
CaféLit authors is a page on our web site. See examples here. The list is growing. Click on the names to
find out more about the authors and to access their work. If you're a CaféLit
author and would like a web page, use the ones there to get ideas. You need to
send me between 250 and 350 words about yourself, an attractive image, a list
of up to six publications, up to six awards and up to six links. I then also
link the page to your stories on CaféLit. Send to gill at cafelit dot co dot
uk. I'm pleased to have added Gail
Aldwin this month.
Chapeltown
I'm now trying to
build up the Chapeltown readers list. I'm giving away a free copy of my January Stones 2013 to anyone who joins.
See details here: http://www.chapeltownpublishing.uk/
I'm also having an
audio version of this book made. This is going well so far. If this continues
to go well, we'll roll it out to other authors. The profit share will equal 10%
of the cover price of the audio file.
Christopher Bowles' Spectrum,
a challenging but very satisfying read. Again reviews welcome. The Kindle
version was quite a challenge. He has some fabulous reviews. See them here.
More are welcome. I can send you a PDF or mobi file. Be warned: there is some
adult material in this. There is also a lot of beautiful writing. If you would
like to buy the book, see details here. You may also be interested to read that
Christopher secured himself a new job recently. In the part of the interview
where they wanted to know about other aspects of his life, he mentioned Spectrum and his performances. He will
now be using this in his work.
Chapeltown has now
successfully published its first picture book. Colin Wyatt’s Who will be my friend? – is a delightful story about friendship and
accepting others. Yes, Colin is Debz’s dad. He is a Disney licensed illustrator
and his previous publication is The Jet Set. We feel very
honoured to have published him.
The book is out now and available at https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Will-Be-My-Friend/dp/1910542121/
Reviews welcome. We can provide the PDF.
We’re very pleased with this book and now aim to publish
more picture books. We're working on an illustrated book by Philippa Rae and
we've offered two more contracts for picture books.
If you're interested in reviewing any of the above, just
email me.
Coming soon: work by Anusha VR, Gail Aldwin, Alyson Faye,
Mandy Huggins and Roger Noons. There are
a couple waiting in the wings as well.
Chapeltown is now going to publish all of The Schellberg Cycle. A new version of The House on Schellberg Street is now available.
Details are here.
Creative Café
I've added just
one new café this month and one a little closer to home than the other recent additions. This is another one I found via Twitter. Take
a look: http://www.creativecafeproject.org/2017/12/the-aylmer-pantry-highgate-london-n2-uk.html
I'm continuing my
tour of creative cafés where I collect stories for an anthology. In some cases,
writers may offer them and in others maybe customers may tell me their story
and I'll write it for them. Do you know of a café that might be interested in
this? Let me know if you do.
Remember you can
now buy merchandise for the Creative Café project. The profit on anything you
buy here goes to the Creative Café Project. Check this out here.
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 also now proactively encouraging cafes to stock The Best of CaféLit. 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
Our mentoring
programme is now full. I’m working quite closely with three very different
authors: Charlotte Comley, Dianne Stadhams, and Nina Wadcock. They are all
presenting some fascinating material. University of Salford graduates Lauren
Hopes and Christian Leah have also joined our happy band.
I was delighted to
see Lauren at our recent Celebration Event in London. She read from her novel.
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 or so books (exact number is up for negotiation) 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. We must be able to invoice a retailer later
for this to work. 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 did a presentation about my work on this at the 2017
NAWE Conference. It became apparent
as I talked and partly from the reaction of one of the delegates that the
workshop has more impact than the book. Mind you, that had partly been the
intention.
Costs for my workshops = 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.
I also offer a free half day visit, though you pay my travel
expenses, if you allow me to promote my books.
I’m continuously adding materials for schools to the site
that are different from the ones I use for the workshops. I’ve recently added
in resources and books to do with the topic. See them here:
Query for a school visit here.
I’m also happy to tailor a visit for your agreed donation.
This can be for either a Schellberg Cycle
visit or a creative writing workshop. Any monies raised this way will go
specifically to a project I have for a non-fiction book about a journey that
will follow the footsteps of Clara
Lehrs. I’m hoping to do the whole journey by train, including departing via
my nearest Metrolink station. It’s important to feel the rails beneath my
feet.
I offer as well standard author visits which include
readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.
It is now possible to purchase the kit to work on on your
own. Find details here.
Please remember, with these as well, I’m open to negotiation
if you can’t afford the full price.
Upcoming events
More specific
details of the following will be posted later.
- I'm hoping to run a workshop on marketing for indie writers / publishers. This will be free of charge but you may make a donation if you wish. This will enable me to put on further events.
- A Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher Master Class about writing the young adult novel.
- Manchester event in the summer.
- London event 1 December 2018 (Save the date!)
Past events
Our event on 2 December at the Princess of Wales went well though
twenty delegates had to pull out, all for good reasons: illness, awkward
trains, family problems, job inductions etc. and I too suffered from
"awkward trains".
Nevertheless, we all had a great time. We also sold half of
our stock of books within the first five minutes and quite a bit more later on.
I didn't have to bring all that much back home.
I actually managed to join in the "speed-dating"
this time. The little bell that I bought worked really hard. She is a young
woman in a crinoline dress. Esmeralda. It was good to put names to faces. I
read a little too from January Stones. We
also had readings from Margaret Bulleyment, Penny Dale, Shanta Everington,
Lauren Hopes, Dawn Knox, Paula Readman, Allison Symes and Robin Wrigley.
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.
I have recently revamped
the way this works and made it much more user friendly. Let me know what you
think.
Current reading recommendation
The Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Well of course it
was going to be good. What else would we expect?
Interestingly I did
not initially take to Northern Lights, the
first book in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials
trilogy. It was recommended by my tutor on the Southampton University run
Writers' Register. I could see it was well written but it didn't engage me. However,
The Subtle Knife did, partly because there
were some scenes in Winchester, where I was at the time studying for my MA in
Writing for Children, and on the same course was one Marcus Parry who had a son
called Will – the same age as Pullman's Will Parry. By the time The Amber Spyglass appeared I was well
and truly hooked.
I insisted that my
husband should read the Dark Materials books.
He has a PhD in particle physics. He grumbled when he started reading them. He
couldn't get enough sleep. He couldn't put them down.
I was given this first
volume of The Book of Dust by my son
for my birthday. I read it over the Christmas holidays. Pullman has done it again.
The setting is strong. The characters are well drawn. There is plenty of pace
and tension. There is also enough to keep many a particle physicist awake at night.
I enjoyed reading
this big hardback version of the book. Often I struggle holding these but this one
worked. It opened easily and the font was clear and big enough.
Recommended. Find it here.
Calling all writers
I'm running an occasional series of interviews on my blog.
Take a look at my interview with Allison
Symes and Dawn Knox. If you would like to be on my blog just
answer the questions below and send them with appropriate images to gill dot
james at btinternet dot com.
Please feel free to pick and choose which of these to
answer.
1.
What do you write? Why this in particular?
2.
What got you started on writing in the first place?
3.
Do you have a particular routine?
4.
Do you have a dedicated working space?
5.
When did you decide you could call yourself a writer?
Do you do that in fact?
6.
How supportive are your friends and family? Do they
understand what you're doing?
7.
What are you most proud of in your writing?
8.
How do you get on with editing and research?
9.
Do you have any goals for the future?
10. Which
writers have inspired you?
Please write as much or as little as you like for each
section and supply as many pictures as you like. Also let me know your latest
publication and supply me with a link if it's not on Amazon.
Giveaway
This month I'm
giving away January Stones, my own collection
of Flash Fiction. Sign up to have this Newsletter drop into your inbox.
You will also find
in this dropbox:
·
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
Note, that normally my books and the books supplied by the imprints I
manage, sell for anything form £0.99 to £10.99, with most on Kindle being about
£2.99 and the average price for paperback being £7.00. We have to allow our writers
to make a living. But we’re offering these free samples so that you can try
before you buy.
Sign up here.
Happy reading and
writing.
