More about me and CafeLit

 

The Best of CaféLit 9 was one of those books where we asked those who had been in the previous volume to vote for this year’s  stories  They were to pick five and give five points to the best, four to the second best etc. We totted up all of the points and found a rank order.  We published the top 40,000 words. The stories were published in rank order in the book.

Okay, so my two stories ‘The Yellow Bus’ and ‘Three’s a Crowd’ were the last two to be included. Never mind. They got there.

‘The Yellow Bus’ is based on a true story. I always say, anyway, that bus journeys provide writers with tons of ideas.

‘Three’s a Crowd’ was based on a writing prompt.

I write short stories as a way of punctuating my involvement with my novel writing.  Every time I finish an edit I write a short story or something similar. I go to Fair Submissions and try to write something for whatever is on the landing page. I enjoy the discipline of writing to a brief.  However, that doesn’t mean that the story hasn’t come from something I met on one of my travels – perhaps on a yellow bus.

How did these two stories end up in CaféLit?

I submit something every day somewhere. I keep a spreadsheet of what has gone where and what is available to submit. CaféLit comes to the top of the list every now and then.

I never give up on a piece, but I do reedit before I send it out again.

Recently, I had a piece of flash creative non-fiction accepted that had been out eleven times before.

By the way, we use a different method each year for selecting which stories go into The Best of  books. 14 and 15 are chosen by different editors. 16 will be by yours truly.  Who knows what we’ll do for 17? 

Find your copy here             

My involvement with 'The Best of CafeLit 12'

 

I often interview other people about their contributions to our anthologies so this time I thought I’d talk about my stories in this collection. 

What inspired me to write my stories ‘’Doing the Right Thing’ and ‘Socrates’ Wink’?

We all try to ‘do the right thing’ but I worry that some ‘cures’ might be worse than the disease. Remember, we started using single use plastic bags to save paper. We’re asked to recycle but to wash out our recyclable items first. What does that cost in water and energy? Electric cars, sure, but what is the carbon cost of producing them? I’ve tried to crystallize these ideas into a piece of creative non-fiction.

As for Socrates – he’s fascinated me for a long time especially since I attended a couple of U3A philosophy groups particularly during lockdown where I think we all grabbed at straws.  Except that this seems to be a rather sturdy branch. In this story Father and son unwittingly use Socratic discourse techniques to find some common ground. Father is a fan of Socrates.       

What made me think of CaféLit? 

It was partly about creating a platform where some of my writing friends and the creative writing students I used to teach could send work. The stories we accept are diverse in subject matters, length (with the parameters of 50 – 3000 words) and style, so we need something to unify them. So, we look for tales that would go well with a brew, particularly at 4 pm. We’ve been going quite a while now – since 2010 in fact. We have over 3000 stories on the site. We ask writers to allow us to display the stories for a year but only take them down if they ask us to.  We’ve only ever been asked to take two down.      

 What’s special about short stories for me?

A short story or piece of flash fiction will stay for you a long time after you’ve read it. Of course the same is true of a novel but it takes you longer to read it in the first place. So, the effect of the short story or the piece of flash fiction is stronger. Here’s an example. The novel I wrote for my PhD was over 103,000 words. When Mary Hoffman put out a call for stories for the Lines in the Sand anthology I told the same story in 1000 words. All have their place: novels, novellas, short stories and flash fiction.   

 

Find your copy of The Best of  CafeLit 12  here   

How to Avoid Head-Hopping

 

 

First person and close third person narratives are in favour at the moment.  This is possibly because these two narrative voices hold us very close to the characters in a story and that is what the modern reader enjoys.

I’m a fan of Charles Dickens. He was a great story-teller. But he was an omniscient author who could look down into all of the characters’ minds. We crave a greater closeness now.

I’m also a great admirer of Monika Feth, the German writer who has created a series of thrillers for young adults. We always know who ‘did it’ and the tension comes from wondering whether the victim will escape the criminal. In a novel I read recently, Der Libellenflüsterer, (the dragonfly whisperer)  we enjoy the point of view of the protagonist, her mother’s, the victim’s,  the perpetrator’s, his wife’s, his little girl’s, and that of a social worker who is murdered.  But Feth doesn’t head-hop. She stays with each character throughout a scene.

How does she achieve this?

She uses the senses

She tells us what the characters see, hear, taste, smell and feel

She doesn’t tag thoughts

Instead of saying ‘Merle wondered whether he would find her’ she just goes straight to the thought. ‘Would he be able to find her? Could she get out without him hearing?’

She gives each character a distinct personality

Each character acts, thinks and speaks in as particular way. We should be able to open the book at any page and know which character we’re reading about.  

Each scene is only seen by one character

Yes, we might see the same scene several times through different characters’ eyes but we only see them one at a time. The daughter has one perception of what her father is doing; her mother has another.

Each scene is consistent with how it character sees the world

Feth can do this because she knows her characters well.  She knows about their intellectual capability, their physical abilities and limitations and their emotional circumstances.

 

Feth is the master of having multiple viewpoints without ever head-hopping.  She writes very long books in series of small scenes.  It really works.

‘The Prophecy’ - something new for me at the time

The Prophecy is science fiction and it is a Young Adult novel. It is the first book in the Peace Child series and it was a first in many ways for me when I wrote it. It was the first time I’d written science fiction, it was the first time I’d written for young adults and it was the first time I’d written a novel over about 29,000 words.

In fact, if formed part of my PhD thesis, Peace Child, Towards a Global Definition of the Young Adult Novel.

I had a writing routine back then (2003-2007) that involved writing for two hours a day and producing 2000 words. I also read avidly and devoured as many young adult novels as I could find: ones in other languages, form other English-speaking countries and anything that was labelled ‘young adult’ by publishers, book-sellers, teachers, librarians and young adults themselves. I sought to define what the young adult novel was and shape my novel accordingly.

It soon became apparent that it wasn’t a matter of writing the story and then working on the definition.  The two processes had to go hand in hand.

I won’t give you my definition here - why would I deprive you of the pleasure of reading the thesis? Find out all about it here: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/peace-child-towards-a-global-definition-of-the-young-adult-novel. I can however tell you I identified seven characteristics.

There was an explosion in YA literature between 1996 and 2005. Back then I was familiar with pretty well every YA text. Now there are far too many of them to keep track and the YA novel has moved on.

The story itself is a about a Peace Child, a sort of super-charged diplomat who seeks to bring people on opposite sides together.  Oh, I wish we had a few of those around now. Kaleem’s world is in a distant future, where we have colonised other planets and found other life in the universe, But as ever in science fiction we encounter the same problems that challenge us in our own world.

I spent many months before I started writing the story creating Kaleem’s world.  I thought about food, clothing, schooling, religion, finance and many other matters.  When I started writing more questions came up. I find this happens too in fantasy and historical fiction.   With the latter you have to go and find out - for example for one book I needed to know which cut flowers would be available in the autumn in 1941. In fantasy and science fiction you have to use your imagination – but in fact you are still writing what you know.

Is science fiction and science fantasy for young adults the equivalent of the glove puppet and  anthropomorphised animals for very young children? I suspect it is.

I have now completed six stories in the Peace Child series. I shall be starting the seventh and final one shortly.    

This first novel shows how the Peace Child, Kaleem Malkendy, fulfils a prophecy and saves his planet. In the process he finds out a lot about his own identity. He has to learn to understand otherness. In subsequent books he faces other issues but there is always the need to find a third way between opposing entities. In books five and six he hands over the batten to the next Peace Child and in book seven we shall meet her successor.

The prophecy? It is something to do with the Tower of Babel. Kaleem is a super linguist. Is the prophecy accurate? In a later book some explanation is offered as to how it came about … and yet we are left wondering. Here’s a hint for you:  one characteristic of the young adult novel is that it allows the reader to make up their own mind about what is really happening. I think The Prophecy does.              

 

Kaleem Malkendy is different – and on Terrestra, different is no way to be.
Everything about Kaleem marks him out form the rest: the blond hair and dark skin, the uncomfortable cave where he lives and the fact that he doesn’t know his father. He’s used to unwelcome attention, but even so he’d feel better if some strange old man didn’t keep following him around.
That man introduces himself and begins to explain the Babel Prophecy – and everything in Kaleem’s life changes forever.   

Find you copy here

Rosemary Banfield and Sam Banfield-Keller : Are you an Alien?

Today I chat to the wonderful Sam Banfield-Keller and Rosemary Banfield who have together written this lovely picture book.

 

It is a really great for us to have a writer and illustrator, mom and daughter at that,  already working together as a team. Have you completed many similar projects together?

SK: It was a real privilege for us to work as a team on Are You an Alien? and thanks so much to you and Chapeltown for getting us to this point. Are You An Alien? is the first of three manuscripts I wrote when my children were little and I was still reading bedtime stories to them. My mom and I have already begun outlining the next story, which is about a lonely chameleon looking for someone special to call his own.

RB: Are You an Alien? is our first completed project and first published book together, but we have a couple of other ideas in development that we hope to see through to publication in the future. Sam has written a number of children’s stories, which we intend to collaborate on, and my hope is to complete the illustrations for the next book by the end of this year. Our goal is to keep working together, and by the way, it is a privilege for me to be able to work with Sam on these projects.

 

Can you tell us a little about how you worked together on this project?

RB: Although we’re originally from South Africa, Sam and I now live in different states in New England, USA —Sam’s in Connecticut and I’m in Massachusetts. There is a two-and-a-half hour drive between us, so most of our work is done by phone, FaceTime, or Zoom, and whenever we can get together in person. I think we are very fortunate, most of the time, to be on the same page. We have the same sense of humour and often come up with similar solutions to any problems that arise. Sam is a competent illustrator herself, however, as a busy writer, novelist, and creative writing teacher, she has little time to take on the work of illustrating her own children’s stories. She generously shares her ideas with me and I do the same with her and we seldom disagree. When we do disagree we manage to sort it out quite amicably.

SK: I wrote the manuscript and laid out the original storyboard for Are You An Alien? and made a couple of attempts to visualize Makhosi and how she would move around her world and on the page. Mom and I then took the storyboard and worked together on bringing the story to life. Once the illustrations begin, it becomes a very collaborative process, as the pictures tell so much of the story, which you don’t need or want to repeat in the script. So the manuscript begins to change and the pictures fill in the gaps, and by then the work is a true collaboration. Mom also brings so much humor and fun to her illustrations, with the inclusion of little, unexpected details. Most fun for me was how she hid the alien in plain sight on each page. I love the way she’s shown him attempting to roll himself up like the pangolin.

 

What did you enjoy most about producing this book? 

RB: Everything! The whole project. From Sam’s initial invitation to take on this project with her and the early months where I spent many hours working on numerous sketches and drawings to establish the illustration style we wanted for our book. Then, working to create the ideal look for little Makhosi. At first she looked too old for our little heroine and then, too young, until eventually—like in the Goldilocks fairytale—she turned out “just right”! I loved having this opportunity to work with my daughter, doing something I’ve always loved. Although I’ve illustrated two other books for children, this was the dream—our first submission as mother and daughter.

Later, when we connected with Gill and Martin at Chapeltown, it became real for us to imagine our work being published. Both Gill and Martin made this journey very easy, their communication was always precise and clear and timeous. Martin’s advice was so useful and his sense of humour kept us entertained! We learned a lot and are grateful for the guidance. Sam and I could not be happier with the final product of Are You an Alien?

SK: It’s hard not to celebrate every aspect of this experience. Thanks to Mom being an artist, creativity was always encouraged in our home. We had baskets of art supplies, paints and paper available, and books in every room. Me wanting to be a writer was always encouraged and so this is sincerely the realization of a lifelong intention for both of us. My mom has illustrated children’s books before and I always wanted to write them and working together to bring Makhosi’s story to life has been a lot of fun.

 

What if anything has been the most difficult about this project?

SK: The only thing for me was the frustration at my limited digital production skills. Fortunately my son, Thomas, is a media production student and knows a lot about the things I don’t. He was able to help us reformat and clean up the images, even putting together our first dummy book. A true family affair! Apart from that small and solvable annoyance, to be honest we have been fortunate not to come up against any insurmountable difficulties with the production of the book. We often said during the process that it would have been easier if we lived closer to one another. We’d have been able to work more collaboratively on the creation of the illustrations and how they worked with the manuscript, and we did miss not being able to have more in-person time together. 

RB: However, this is a complaint we have in real life anyway. Always wishing we lived close enough to meet for a cup of coffee every day! 

 

Can you both tell us about your work routines?

RB: As I work from home, my work routine in normal circumstances is to be at my desk by 9.00am and work until about 3.00pm. The time spent drawing and painting and researching the habits, habitats, and quirks of the creatures I’m drawing, is interspersed with several coffee breaks, chats with my husband Mike—who also works from home—and taking moments to cuddle with our reluctant cat, Oliver, who shares my space but does not like to be disturbed. I’m also fortunate to be able to work on weekends if there’s nothing else going on. 

SK: I also work from home—unless I’m teaching—and meet with my editing clients via Zoom, and with writing colleagues at the local library. (I’d like to offer a quick shout out in support of the amazing work libraries do in our communities!) Creative work is often deprioritized when there is paid work to do, so I try to be disciplined about keeping my mornings for my writing. I meet editing clients and work on any paid projects, marketing, website maintenance, etc. in the afternoons. I find if I don’t prioritize the creative work, it gets absorbed into the other demands of life, so this time has become a non-negotiable for me. 

And do you have a dedicated space for your work? 

RB: I have a dedicated space, working at a table which I find is never big enough. I wonder if there is an artist alive who ever has enough space? I often use part of the kitchen counter when I’m working on large pieces of paper and I need enough room to accommodate my paints, brushes, pencils, etc. It can often be hazardous working like this, as the sink is rather too close for comfort and the risk of getting water splashes on my paintings are almost inevitable. 

 

I need a DO NOT DISTURB sign more than Oliver thinks he does.

 

On top of the immediate work surfaces, I have different portfolios for each project I’m working on, drawers and shelves for copious quantities of art supplies, tools and paint palettes and the never ending, growing numbers of books. All absolutely essential of course!

SK: I have a dedicated office, where I work when I’m at home and on Zoom calls. We recently moved house so I don’t feel completely organized or settled in the room yet and, no matter where I work, I always seem to need more space for my ever-expanding book collection. My desk looks out onto a row of Linden trees, which are currently in their full spring greenery, and the house is very quiet as both my children are away at university now. I do have to share my space with Pickle, our cat, who insists on perching on the back of my chair or settling on my lap while I work. I have a dog too, called Puzzle, who has a dedicated cushion in the room. His gentle snoring is the soundtrack to my work days.

 

Do you have any events planned? We’re happy to advertise them here.

SK: We don’t have anything planned yet, apart from some family and friend events to celebrate the book’s publication. We have been reaching out to local libraries and bookstores and are hopeful we can arrange something soon.

RB: I have sent emails out to groups of people, family, friends, colleagues, and fellow artists, and am planning a Mother’s Day promotion with Sam on Instagram. We have approached the local libraries in our respective states and also bookshops, introducing Are You an Alien?, and have received a few offers of discussions towards arranging events, soon to be confirmed. 

 

Do you have any more collaboration planned?

RB: Yes, I’m happy to say, Sam and I have other collaborations planned for the near future and the next one is currently in the wings. It is another wonderful Sam Banfield-Keller children’s story, illustrated by her mum! It’s about a lonely little chameleon looking for a friend, and along similar lines to Are You an Alien?, includes a cast of colorful creatures.

SK: Apart from the chameleon story, which is titled Tongue-Tied, we are working on the manuscript for a longer piece called Sweet & Sour. This will be aimed at early readers and is about a grumpy, friendless cobbler who is brought out of his shell by a kind baker, who opens a sweet shop next door to the cobbler’s shoe shop. We’re inspired to get back to the literal drawing board and work on expressing the characters for both stories.

 

Or indeed any individual projects?

RB: I have a good friend who has recently finished writing a children's story. It’s her debut effort and she has approached me to illustrate her story, which is an exciting prospect for us both. 

SK: I have a literary fiction novel, called The Light Remains being published in South Africa and North America later this year. I’m currently working on my second novel, which I’m hoping to finish in the next few months, and have a third, which was written in collaboration with two other writers, out for submission at the moment.

 

Thank you so much for answering these questions. This has been a really interesting interview. 

 

You can find  find a copy of  Are You an Alien? here.   

See how the project developed here: 

 

 

News 3 May

 

 

We do go there often. It take just about an hour and half to get from our home to just the other side of Penrith. Whitbarrow. For three of the days we were there a road was closed while they laid a new water main so we were forced to go via the village of Greystoke. It’s quite a detour but extremely rewarding.  And Greystoke has  a castle, no less. It isn’t open to the public and this somehow makes it even more appealing. There’s something about the name… I feel a story coming on…. Which secrets does this castle hide?

We also enjoyed a puppet theatre at the Upfront Arts Venue.This has a café and a gallery as well so this will soon be featured on my Creative Café Project site. They hold live music events. Thie gift shop is very tempting and not too expensive.

Naturally I had to visit my favourite Lakeland bookshop atPooley Bridge and I just had to buy a couple of books. I chose ‘Fin & Ana’ books by R. Fox They’re in a similar format to the classic Beatrix Potter stories. The stories are a little twee but nevertheless charming. The pictures look as if they’ve been generated by AI and the books are clearly sell-published. Not that that means they can’t be of good quality. There is little information about the books on Amazon but plenty on R Fox’s author page.

Each book ends with a description of a walk in the area where the story is set.

I’ll have to read these more carefully before I make any sort of judgement and anyway I suspect they’ll end up in The Young Person’s Library.

 

 

Writing news

I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. It now seems to be almost more about how homosexuality was treated in Nazi Germany than about the resistance, Neverthelss, one of the main characters, Adelhard Braun, may even be distracted by his involvement in resisting the Nazis from the problems that his homosexuality pose.  

I have a review of Of Mice and Men on Talking About My Generation: 

 

 

This was an interesting performance in that a story that embraces little inclusivity is inclusive: one actor is blind and two are autistic. As ever, a very moving story.    

 

 

I have a second article on Talking About My Generation about the Manchester City of Literature Map.  visit the Alliance Française and also offer some creative writing in other language exercises.     

 

On My Blog

 

I have a special offer where you can buy all of my Schellberg books in paperback form for £20.00 

 

 

There is an Leexcerpt of my resource for creative writing teachers Let’s Get Writing This includes information about how to find the resource. 

 

 

There is an appeal for a review of The Best of CafeLit 4  As ever, please remember how important reviews are for us writers. They don’t need to be long and they should be constructive.  It is possible to do both in a two to four lines!  

 

 

I also have a short article about reliance on how the Internet may have stopped us juststumbling across some information:  Is there something to be gained from older technology? 

 

The Young Person’s Library

I’ve added two books this month, both of them YA

 

First, there is the final part of Jeanette Greaves’ Ransomed Hearts series. Silverwood Rising tells of the werewolf community now out into the open and recognised by the general public.

 

 

Then there is Monika Feth’s Der Libellenflüsterer is a thriller for YA. It contains multiple points of view and it really improved my German vocab. 

 

Recommended read

This month I choose Silverwood Rising mentioned above. 

 

 

This is the fourth and final book in Jeanette Greaves ‘Ransomed Hearts’ series.

 Yes, we certainly all know by now that this series is about werewolves and Greaves has created her own brand of them. 

Read more here  

 

Giveaway  

This month I’m giving away a copy of January Stones 

 

These stories were written one a day throughout January 2013. They were originally published on a blog called Gill’s January Stones. In fact, they were published in reverse order. The first one you read here, When Physics Got Sick, was the last one to be written and originally published on 31 January 2016.

Sometimes the stories would come right at the beginning of the day. Sometimes they would take a while longer.

Do they have a theme? Not really, though the idea of ‘stones’ is one of turning them over slowly on the beach until we find the right one. It’s not a bad time of year, anyway, right at the beginning in January, as the New Year starts and the days slowly become longer.

There was no strict word count. Each story is as long as it needs to be. It had to be finished, though, by midnight of that day.

Sign up to receive this news letter monthly and grab your free materials.  You’ll find an e-book file and a PDF plus a lot of other free materials here.

Please leave a review on Amazon, if you’re allowed to, on Good Reads and anywhere else you can.

 

 

The Schellberg Project

The posts may be helpful for teachers who are familiar with the Schellberg stories or who are teaching about the Holocaust.  They may also be interesting for other readers of historical fiction.

 

 

In case you’re not already familiar with it I’ve posted an excerpt from The House on Schellberg Street on the blog. I’ve chosen the second chapter this time.  This is the first chapter in the thread about the house itself.

 

 

 

I’ve written a review of Michael Rosen’s One Day. This is a story about Holocaust survival and about living one day at a time.  I’m not convinced though that this is a picture book for children. 

 

 

I’ve also taken a look at the attempts to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality 

 

 

Some notes about my newsletters and blogs

They do overlap a little but here is a summary of what they all do.

 

Bridge House Authors For all those published by Bridge House, CaféLit, Chapeltown or The Red Telephone or interested in being published by us. General news about the imprints. News for writers. Links to book performance. Sign up here.

 

The Bridgetown  Café Bookshop where you can buy my books and books published by Bridge House Publishing, CafeLit, Chapeltown Books and The Red Telephone.  Visit us here.     

 

Gill’s News: News about my writing, The Schellberg Project, School Visits and Events. Book recommendations and giveaways. Find it here.   

 

Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher News about conferences and workshops to do with the young adult novel. (infrequent postings) Sign up here.  

 

Red Telephone Books News about our books and our authors. Sign up here.

 

A Publisher’s Perspective Here I and some other editors blog as a publisher. Access this here.   

 

The Creative Café Project Listings and reviews of creative cafés. See them here.   

 

CaféLit Stories Find these here

 

Gill James Writer All about writing and about my books. View this here.

 

Gill’s Recommended Reads Find information here about books that have taken me out of my editor’s head and a reminder of the ones I’ve highlighted in this newsletter.    

 

Gill’s Sample Fiction Read some of my fiction here.

 

The House on Schellberg Street All about my Schellberg project. Read it here.

 

Writing Teacher All about teaching creative writing.  Some creative writing exercises. Access this here.  I also invite other writers to provide prompts and work for critique.     

 

Books Books Books Weekly offers on our books and news of new books. Find them here. 

 

The Young Person’s Library The children’s book catalogue. Access it here.

 

Fair Submissions  Find it here.   

Opportunities for writers are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I send it out to a list. If you would like to be on that list, sign up here.  

Happy reading and writing.