How is everyone coping with the hot weather? We have all
windows and the patio door open all day and our bedroom windows at night. We're
plagued with smoky air from the wildfires up here in the North West and no sign
of any rain. Who'd have thought it?
Wildfires in the North West of England? Rainy City without rain? And I've recently
written a short story about a state of emergency in the North West because of
violent storms.
News about my writing
I'm getting
excited now about having the play script of The
House on Schellberg Street read out on 8 July. There's still time to get
involved if you live within commuting distance of Greater Manchester, let me
know. This will be at the Garrick
Theatre, very close to the Metrolink in Whitefield. We shall start at 1.30 and
finish at 6.00 p.m. I'm hoping to have a read through and a walk
through. I hope to pre-cast it. I shall provide cake and other refreshments.
I'm now working on
the extra material needed in The House of
Clementine. Currently I'm adding in some chapters of Rozia's Glog – rather
like I did in The Tower. (This is my giveaway book this month.)
Clara's Story is now out. You can find it here.
As usual reviews are welcome and I can provide the mobi file or a PDF. Here's
the blurb:
"Clara
will not be daunted. Her life will not end when her beloved husband dies too
young. She will become a second mother
to the children who live away from home at an early age in order to visit a
rather special school. When life becomes
desperate for a particular class of disabled children growing up in Nazi
Germany she takes a few risks. Is her ultimate faith in the goodness of human
beings a fatal flaw that leads to her tragedy or is her story actually one of
hope?
"Clara's Story is
the second book in the Schellberg Cycle, a collection of novels inspired by a
bunch of photocopied letters that arrived at a small cottage in Wales in 1979.
Renate James, nee Edler, Clara's granddaughter, began to recognise the names of
the girls she had been at school with.
"The letters give us some insights into what life was
like growing up in Germany in the 1930s and 1940s. Renate used to tell the
story of a school for disabled children that defied the Nazi regime.
"We have a few verifiable facts and research has
uncovered a few more. Some repeated experience added more understanding. But most of all that act of imagination that
belongs to actors and writers enabled us to fill the gaps."
I've had some positive comments from one reader so far. Thank
you!
I'm also still working on the fifth book in the cycle: The Round Robin. This looks more closely
at the lives of some of the people who were involved in the class letter in The House on Schellberg Street: Anika
who becomes an actor, Gerda who helps to run the family farm, Elsa, one of
identical twins, who ends up running the family business and Hanna Braun, their
former teacher who refuses to teach the Nazi doctrine and who knows more about
what is going on than many other young women do.
My second collection of flash fiction is out on Kindle. The paperback will follow shortly. As usual,
reviews are welcome and I can supply a mobi file or a PDF. 140 x 140 is made up of 140
pieces of flash fiction, each 140 words long. Each one is written from a prompt
– the first picture I saw on my Twitter feed that day. I'm now working on 280 x 70. I think you get the picture. 140 x 140 is one of the little square
books but has to retail at an RRP of £7.00 as it has more pages that the
others. Of course, you could get a free
copy if you came to my event at the Buxton Fringe. More about that later.
1940s Group
This is a Facebook
group 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.
So many parallels
are now being drawn between what is happening now and what happened in the
1930s and 1940s. I see them too but I think this what is happening today is
both mediated and escalated by social media. My girls hardly read the newspaper
or listened to the news. They didn't really know what was going on and knew
that they didn't know. We think we know but how much are we taken in by fake
news and a monopolised press? There's another story in the making ….
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.
I'm delighted to
have Neil
Campbell on board as a reviewer.
More about Amazon
Amazon's next
trick is the removal of reviews. As I
understand it, they use algorithms – which they change continuously – to
determine which reviews to keep. If they see a personal connection between you
and your reviewer they may remove the review. I'd still argue, however, that
with over six hundred people on the lists I manage, if everyone wrote a review
occasionally we'd have enough variety to get around Amazon's algorithms.
Personally I'll
add a review if I can give four or five stars on Amazon and if that book hasn't
already got over 50 reviews. If I really love a book and it takes me out of my
editor's head it goes on to my Recommended Reads Blog.
If someone asks me
to review I'll be scrupulously honest. You have to be. Same with social media –
only like what you genuinely like. If it's someone I know I'll warn them that
the review will be harsh.
It's worth
remembering that one, two and three star reviews don't actually harm. The lower
ratings sometimes make me curious as a reader.
Yes, Amazon
continues to be powerful. Publishers cannot do much about it. However, I'm attending
a meeting with them and several other small publishers next Thursday. We'll
see!
Illegal Downloads
One of my writers informed me that a site was providing
copies of her book illegally. A lot of these sites are fake. This one actually
wasn't. As soon as I started filling in the contact form it asked me which book
I wanted removing and offered apologies in poor English.
Interestingly when your book appears on one of these sites you
often get a spike in sales. The download offered is of such terrible quality –
often a PDF of a poor scan – that if the reader finds the book satisfying
they'll go and actually buy one.
As a published writer I've found publishers and the Society
of Authors almost shrug their shoulders when this happens. However, just this
weekend, the Society of Authors has launched a Twitter campaign on this matter.
Hooray!
We can best combat this by refusing such free downloads and
educating our readers about why this is wrong.
How does this compare, though, with buying second hand
books? Or book crossing?
I do think we must carry on asking for our titles to be
removed from sites that offer illegal downloads.
Bridge House
Jenny Palmer's Keepsake
was published this month.
Keepsake and Other
Stories is a collection of Jenny's finest writing. There are stories to
make you smile and stories to make you think.
And they ask many questions. Why do the visitors decide never to return?
What will happen to a relationship if one of the partners becomes too obsessed
with a project? What is in the shed?
What exactly is the keepsake? One thing is for sure: you will enjoy finding
out.
Jenny Palmer lived and worked abroad and in London for many
years, teaching English to foreign students. She has co-edited four anthologies
of short stories, published by the Women's Press and Serpents Tail. Following
her return to Lancashire in 2008, she self-published two memoirs and a family
history. Nowhere Better than Home is
a childhood memoir about growing up in rural Lancashire in the 50s and
60s. Pastures New is the sequel
and covers the heady days of the 70s and 80s. 'Whipps, Watsons and Bulcocks: a Pendle family history' traces the
history of her family, who have lived in the same house for 400 years. Her
poems and short stories have been published in the Lancashire Evening Post, on
the CafeLit website and in various
local anthologies. 'A59' and 'Fatal Flaws' are in the Best of CafeLit 3 and 5.
As usual, I'm happy to provide a mobi or PDF file for
reviews.
We were delight, too, to launch To
Be … To become
See the full list of
contributors here: https://www.waterloofestival.com/winners
Here's the blurb:
"To Be .. To
Become is the theme of the 2018 Waterloo Festival Writing Competition. It is
also the title of the e-book, which contains the sixteen winning entries. Some fantastic writing was offered and all of
it was potentially publishable. We chose
these because they told a good story, had a strong voice and were imaginative
in their interpretation of the theme.
"Entrants were asked to produce a short story or a
monologue. Style was diverse and each
story is completely different from the others.
"This delightful English language anthology of literary
fiction comes to you for under £2.50."
Again we can offer review copies as mobi or epub files or as
a PDF.
If you're waiting to
hear about your book, we have a huge backlog so please be patient. You
can always check our progress at: http://apublishersperspective.blogspot.co.uk/p/work-flow.html
And we have the list
for Crackers:
Angel’s Wing Alyson Faye
Believing Lies Stephen
Faulkner
Supermarket Sweetheart Jennie
E Owen
No Fool like an Old Food
Margaret Bullyment
Crackers the Clown Anne
Wilson
Cracks in the Mirror Sally
Angell
In Plain Sight Kay
Middlemiss
Dress Form Christopher
Bowles
Eton Mess Merlin Ward
Firecracker Elizabeth Cox
Horseflesh Adrian Naylor
Julia’s Crackers G. Norman
Lippert
Rescue Me, Saving You Linda
Flynn
Sheep Be Damned Dianne
Stadhams
Snap Karen Kendrick
Snow Ian Inglis
The Annual General Meeting of the
East Kent Macumba Society Michele Sheldon
The Bogeyman Steve Wade
The Flaw Stuart Larner
The me Phone Boris Glikman
Timothy and Pandora's Box
Dawn Knox
Up in Smoke Paula R C
Readman
Very Little Helps Clare Weze
Years of the Eclipse - Erik
Löfroth
Once again, it was hard to choose. There was some very good writing and pretty well all of what we saw here is publishable. We favoured those stories that captured the theme best though the interpretation of the theme was varied.
CaféLit
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.
In June we had stories from: Peppy Barlow, James Bates, Ruth Ogilive-Brown, Alan Cadman, Jo Dearden, Jody
Durkin, Susan A Eames, Alison Faye, Bren Gosling, Boris Glikman, Linda
Hutchinson, Pat Jourdan, Shawn Klimek, Dawn Knox, Nick Maynard, Kim Martins, Roger
Noons, Jenny Palmer, Linda Payne, Mari Phillips, Copper Rose, Allison Symes, Netta
Shlain, Morna Sullivan, Andrea Williams and Robin Wrigley. Thank you and well
done everyone.
This again includes several new writers. Our community continues
to grow.
Here's a reminder of how we select stories: I open my inbox,
I'll often see four or five submissions. I'll select the best of the bunch and
schedule it for in a few days' time. I'll let you know. I may reject one or two
but ones that are basically sound I'll keep forever or until they’re
published. Consequently if one you've
submitted to us has not been rejected, and you find a home for it elsewhere,
let us know the name of the story and the date you submitted and we'll remove
it from the archive. Try to include the drink each time. Do put CafeLit in the
subject line so we can identify your submission. Remember to include your bio
(50-100 words including links for longer stories, just links for 100 words or
less) each time. I haven't got time to look up an old one and in any case your
bio is probably changing all the time.
.
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.
I hope to get the Best
of CaféLit 7 book out in the next few weeks. We're doing an in-house
proof-read at the moment and then it will go out to authors to check.
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.
Chapeltown
Our Chapeltown
authors have been very proactive in promoting their work. They have managed to
get their books into shops and libraries. They are also buying lots of author
copies and being very proactive on getting on to blogs – mine included, of
course.
I'm still 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/
Spread the word.
I have a new book with
Chapeltown: 140
x 140 Details above.
Creative Café
I've added just
one café added in June: Short and Sweet at Wimborne. Read all about it here.
You can also read about Gail
Aldwin's residency at the café. Good work Gail. News of this sort is always welcome.
There are a few
more cafés waiting to be added.
Keep sending
suggestions and review them if you can.
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 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.
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.
Facebook Group for the Imprints
Scribblers Sans Frontières - Here you can:
·
Discuss all technical issues re our books
·
Exchange marketing ideas
·
Advertise and report on your events
·
Promote any of your titles or successes
·
Share good practice and ideas
·
Get help with writing problems
·
Anything else appropriate
The page URL is https://www.facebook.com/groups/185719828704485/
Please come and join us if you're
eligible. Or you can ask me to sign you up.
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.
It is now possible to purchase the kit to work on on your
own. Find details here.
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.
Please remember, with these as well, I’m open to negotiation
if you can’t afford the full price.
Free listing for our writers
If you are one of
our writers and would like to offer school visits, please contact me. I'm
offering a free listing on the imprint pages.
State: age groups
you are prepared to work with, a definition of your work, distances you are
prepared to travel. Appropriate links. Please provide an image.
Upcoming events
Flash Fiction Reading and Workshop at
Buxton Fringe 19 July
https://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk/descriptions2018.html#2374 I'll be doing readings from January
Stones 2013 and form my new collection 140
x 140. The ticket £7.00 or £5.00 includes a copy of one of the books and a
workshop on writing Flash Fiction. Do come along if you can.
More specific
details of the following will be posted later of the following:
- 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.
- London event 1 December 2018 (Save the date!)
Past events
Scribblers Sans Frontières Event Manchester 2 June, International Burgess Foundation
This was an intimate occasion but very enjoyable. The trains
continued to be awkward, there was a huge protest march in the city centre, it
was half term and there was a nasty bug going around.
Nevertheless it was very enjoyable.
We did our usual speed-dating, I summarised the work of our various
imprints, and several writers read. The Burgess Foundation was the ideal spot.
Some useful networking took place.
Launch of Word Weekend and To Be…. To Become
14 June at St John's Waterloo. We heard from the WINNING
ENTRIES of Waterloo Festival’s Writing Competition! Several
people also read at the OPEN MIC SESSION.
St John's is a fabulous venue. It was good to meet contributors
to the anthology.
Read more about the festival 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.
Current reading recommendation
I've actually been
reading a few collections of student writing. I picked up some anthologies at a
conference I went to a few weeks ago. The work was delightfully good and I'm
pleased to see that a small anthology of writings by some students I've taught
at the University of Salford was truly excellent.
However, my book
of choice this month has to be Alan Bennett's Keep
on Keeping On. This
is a collection of his diaries from 2005-2015. There are also a few articles
and introductions to various other works. There are two scripts that have not
been produced.
I was delighted
and surprised to find that Bennett and I see eye to eye about politics and
about writing. I could just imagine the two of us sitting together watching
Question Time and shouting at the
television.
I acquired the book
for £10.00 – RRP is £19.99 – at a special event at Bury library: An Evening Not
with Alan Bennett. We did have a recorded video link to Bennett and an
"afternoon tea" was put on in the evening. It was quite a spread and
there was as much tea – builders' variety – as you could drink. Amusingly, it
was supplied by the Co-Op Funeral Company. That would amuse Benett, no doubt.
In fact, I'm fairly certain this was deliberate.
It's a good but
long read: 702 pages.
Calling all writers
I'm running an occasional series of interviews on my blog. 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.
I 'm also happy to offer you a post whenever you have a new
book come out, even if I'm not your publisher. In this case answer the
following questions:
- Tell me about your book.
- Tell us about your research for this book.
- What inspired you to write this?
- What's next?
- How can we get a copy of the book?
- Do you have any events planned?
Again write as much or as little as you please. Alter and
add to the questions if you wish. Provide as many pictures as you wish.
Send to: gill dot james at btinternet dot com
Giveaway
This month I'm
giving away The Tower, part three of my
Peace Child trilogy.
·
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.
Naturally we welcome reviews.
Happy reading and
writing.
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