So, you have three CafeLit
serials now. Are they all connected?
Yes and no! They are connected in
that they all started life in the same way. In addition, they all appeared as
individual stories on CaféLit and they are all now published by Chapeltown
Books. They are also all written in the same humorous style. However, the
content of each book is very different and it doesn’t matter which order you
read them in.
The first book that was published
was The Basilwade Chronicles which tells the story of colourful individuals
who live in the fictitious town of Basilwade and the madcap escapades in which
they find themselves.
The second book, The Macaroon
Chronicles tells the story of a band of anthropomorphic animals. They live
on the fictitious Isle of Macaroon, where the scenery is edible such as the
Cheese Mines, the Meringue Mountains and the Custard River. The main character
is Eddie the Bald Chicken who has delusions of grandeur and tells everyone he’s
a Bald Eagle. He and his band of friends lurch from one disaster to another as
they travel about the island causing chaos.
The third and latest book in the
Chronicles is The Crispin Chronicles. It’s set in the grounds of a
stately home where the garden ornaments – the Gnomes, Elves and other creatures
– live together ruled by self-appointed Head Gnome, Bartrum. Crispin is a Marble
Elf who longs for a quiet life but being one of the few sensible garden
ornaments, Bartrum relies on him to organise all his self-aggrandising schemes
– and then to clear up the mess.
What made you think of this
particular one?
I mentioned previously that the
three books began their lives in the same way – the first chapter of each book
was written as a short, self-contained story, with no intention of writing any
more. Each one resulted from a writing prompt given out at one of my writing
groups, the Basildon Writing Group.
The first story in The
Basilwade Chronicles was written in response to a prompt where a story was
to be written about a socially inept man. In my story, Derek Carruthers is a rather
tactless and ill-mannered man who goes speed dating. He blunders his way
through the entire session and not surprisingly, does not come away with a
perfect match. However, I grew to like Derek Carruthers despite his lack of
social graces and decided that perhaps he should have a second chance at love.
I wrote him another story. A character in that story appealed to me and I wrote
a story for her. After that I kept taking one or more characters and writing
them their own ‘episode’.
The Macaroon Chronicles came about in a similar way in that there was a
writing prompt. It consisted of a list of disparate items from which we had to choose
five and then include them in a story. I selected: a ballpoint pen, a pair of
fisherman’s waders, a Hawaiian shirt, an electric guitar and a billboard.
After I’d written my story with
Eddie and his two friends, Brian, a monkey, and Colin a lemur, I decided I
wanted to see what happened to the next instalment and I carried on writing
adventures with those characters – introducing more as I went.
And similarly with The Crispin
Chronicles, the writing prompt was a list of items from which several were
to be included in a story. I selected: a sombrero, a child’s tractor, a
raincoat, a pair of flip-flops and a fishing rod – and Crispin the Marble Elf
and his friends were born. I loved them so much that I carried on writing
stories about them. And once I’d read out a story to the Basildon Writers’ Group,
I submitted it to CaféLit and Gill published each one. When all the stories I’d
written had been published on CaféLit, I submitted the entire manuscript and Gill
published each as a paperback and e-book. In addition, The Basilwade Chronicles
is also available as an audiobook narrated by John Guest.
Are there any advantages or
disadvantages in publishing them as a serial first?
The only disadvantage I can think
of is that the book isn’t published until each story has appeared on the
CaféLit website. But patience is a virtue! And each time, it was well worth the
wait to hold the books in my hand!
As for advantages, I’m not sure.
I have no idea whether having read some or all of the stories, anyone went on
to buy a copy of the book. It would be interesting to find out if that was so.
All three have striking covers.
Can you tell us a little about them?
Before the first book, The
Basilwade Chronicles, was published, I gave a lot of thought to the cover.
I remembered that David O’Neill, a fellow member of the Basildon Writers’ Group,
had a book with a cover that I liked. He’d asked Neill C. Woods, an artist friend
of his, to design the cover and I also approached him to ask if he’d be able to
design something for me. Neill read the book and came back with a cracking
design illustrating many of the characters in the book. Gill liked the cover
too and so, I asked Neill if he’d design the artwork for the other two books
when they were being published. I love the way Neill not only takes note of the
appearance of the characters but also portrays some of their activities and
even their expressions!
They have been on the
radio and one of them has been made into an audio book. Can you tell us
something about that?
Sylvia Kent, a member of the Brentwood
Writers’ Circle, the other writers’ group that I belong to, introduced me to
Jacqui James who is the chairman of Basildon Hospital Radio and I was invited
onto the station to talk about my writing. BHR 87.7FM often joins up with local
radio station, Gateway 97.8FM and Jacqui started to present Good Afternoon on
Wednesday afternoons. I was invited on there to speak about The Basilwade
Chronicles when it was released. Afterwards, Jacqui said that she thought
one of her regular guests would do an excellent job of reading the stories as
he has an amazing repertoire of voices and accents. Appropriately named, John
Guest was a vicar at the time although he was preparing to retire and intended
to become an audiobook narrator. It was a match made in heaven! John read one
chapter of The Basilwade Chronicles out each week live on Jacqui’s Good
Afternoon show. He offered to record the stories and Gill agreed that John
could narrate the audiobook. He’s currently reading out one story from The
Macaroon Chronicles on the last Wednesday of the month on Jacqui’s show.
Not surprisingly, his career as a narrator has taken off and he’s currently
quite busy.
Do you have anything else in the
pipeline? What’s next?
I’m currently writing what I hope
will be my fourteenth My Weekly Pocket Novel. I’ve set myself a challenge of
writing it within a month and so far (day 21, I have 43,000 words written out
of the 50,000 words that I need). After the Pocket Novels come off-shelf, they have
so far been published by Linford Romance Library as large print paperbacks
which you may find in the Large Print Romance section at your local library.
The other rights revert to me and recently, I’ve got together with another
fellow Basildon Writer, Paul Burridge. He formats the manuscripts and has
designed some beautiful book covers for me for the first set of books that I’ve
self-published – The Lady Amelia Saga. The books are set in the late 18th
and early 19th centuries. All involve characters who are somehow
linked to the fictitious ship, the Lady Amelia which transports female convicts
to the newly-established penal colony in New South Wales. The other series of
books which Paul and I are currently working on are set in the early 20th
century and many take place just before or during World War Two. That series
will be called The Heart of Plotlands Saga.
I’ve also been having a bit of
fun writing fractured fairytale drabbles for CaféLit just recently and have had
about a dozen published so far. I have lots more ideas for others.
Paul Burridge – PublishingBuddy https://www.publishingbuddy.co.uk
Neill C Woods – https://northeastgifts.co.uk/artists/neill-c-woods/
Lady Amelia Saga books on Amazon:
The Duchess of Sydney: http://mybook.to/TheDuchessOfSydney
The Finding of Eden: https://mybook.to/TheFindingOfEden
The Other Place: https://mybook.to/TheOtherPlace
The Dolphin’s Kiss: https://mybook.to/TheDolphinsKiss
John Guest: kingdomclown@gmail.com 07710 353461/01795 469188
First stories of each book on CaféLit:
A Question of Timing – First
chapter of The Basilwade Chronicles: https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2017/09/a-question-of-timing.html
The Macaroon Chronicles Prologue
and the Three Wise Monkeys – First chapter of The Macaroon Chronicles: https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2020/01/the-macaroon-chronicles-prologue-and.html
The Crispin Chronicles 1 Her
Ladyship’s Garden – First chapter of The Crispin Chronicles: https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2021/04/the-crispin-chronicles-1-her-ladyships.html
Basildon Hospital Radio: https://www.bhr877.com/listen-online.html
Gateway 97.8FM Local Radio; https://www.gateway978.com/listen-again
