Fifty-five days until I retire, apparently. Yes, that’s
right; I’m retiring form my post as senior lecturer at the University of Salford.
I’m going to be busy though: more time for my writing, publishing and getting
political.
I will make no apology for saying here that I voted for Remain
in the recent referendum and struggle to understand the sincere and informed reasons
for voting for Brexit. The crazy ones I can dismiss. Please let me know. I’m trying
to understand. I have many reasons for voting the way I did but what is relevant
here is that I believe the Arts are better off in a united Europe and European
copyright laws are firmer and fairer than the British ones we had before. So
this is all relevant to my writing too.
I wrote a very personal piece the night before the referendum
and this was very well received, as have been many pieces I’ve written since, actually
by both sides. There’s been a minimum of trolling. Is my writing taking a different
direction? Well, we’ll see.
We made all of the Peace Child trilogy free on Kindle for
five days as the theme is so in keeping with some of the issues that the referendum
raises. Alas, those five days ended on 30 June.
Well, I don’t want to discuss politics too much here, but do
engage with me more directly if you wish to.
Bridge House
We’ve now almost
finished selecting the submissions for “Baubles”, those short, snappy,
sparkly stories that brighten up the darker nights like baubles enhance the
Christmas tree. We’ve made a firm decision about seventeen and we’re sifting through
the “maybes” for the final seven. We’ve found some really strong writing and
some very interesting interpretations of the Baubles theme.
We’re also looking at doing some single author collections.
These are for authors we’ve already published. 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.
CafeLit
Remember, we’re
always open to submissions. Find out how here. I’m now
making the selection for The Best of
CafeLit 5. I’ve been encouraging my students to submit. I’m beginning to
see some of their work appearing.
Chapeltown
We’re currently looking for collections of Flash Fiction.
See our submissions page
here.
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 – 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.
School Visits
I’m proactively promoting my school visits associated with
The House on Schellberg Street
project. I’m still offering visits on this for a donation towards the
project. I’ve devised a whole interactive workshop. It would be a real asset
for any school teaching the Holocaust at Key Stage 3. Even if a school can’t
afford a donation, I’d be happy to run the project.
Here’s some further news about the
Schellberg project. I’ve added in a page
referring to “deleted scenes”. You know, just like you get on some DVDs.
There is also now a page of links to some articles about the
process of writing the novels.
Query for a school visit
here.
I visited Heysham High in Morecambe yesterday and was
intrigues that the teacher, Helan
Trisorio, had found me by doing a Google search on writers who do school
visits in Lancashire and I came up third on the list. Fame at last? It was a
really enjoyable visit. Please read more below.
The Red Telephone
There will be a
new call for submissions next autumn. We’re leaving it quite a while now so
that we can give our current authors all of our attention.
I’d like to remind
you of our new enterprise - something between a mentoring system and an online
course. Though publication is not guaranteed, we will at least look at your
full book if you’ve attended one of the courses. We’re offering it for free to
a few people at first. We’ll refine as we go along based on feedback from our
clients. We’ll then continue to offer it at a discount for a while before going
to full price when we’re completely happy with it. We’re not sure what the full
price will be. Again, we’ll be guided by our current clients. Find out more here.
Books and
short stories
I’m now making good progress on Shooting Hitler. Remember my ten-word pitch.
“A Führer, an anteroom, a pistol. Will she shoot him?”
I’m keeping everything crossed for
Clara’s Story which is being serialised. You may recall I was
thinking of changing the title of
Flowers
on the Table. I decided not to in the end. However, the cover makes this
theme quite clear. The novel is can now be found on Channillo. You may read it
here.
Past events
My book launch of
the new edition of Spooking
went well. We had a small but select group of attendees and some superb
cake at the Honest Coffee café . The room
was just right. The space was intimate but would have had enough room for forty
people. The cake was really special.
There was some left over so I took it along to a concert that was serving
cake afterwards. This included a delicious chocolate cake and possibly the
nicest cheese cake I’ve ever eaten. My car smelt of rum and vanilla for days
afterwards.
I was very pleased
with what happened at our Create
festival. Our “canned” fiction was particularly popular. Several students were
able showcase their synopsis of their young adult novel. The general public
voted on the best one. We had a tie. So now, Lauren Hopes and Christian Lea
will be mentored by The Red
Telephone. They may well choose to write the rest of their young adult novels
and if all goes well, they may receive a publishing contract. Well done to both!
During the day, flash fiction written by our students was shown on the screens
throughout our Media City
building. Several people had a go at writing flash fiction guided by our prompt
sheets.
I was delighted with
my school visit to Heysham High in
Morecambe yesterday. I met with a group of Y7s, a group of Y8s, a group of Y9s
and the creative writers from the 6th form. All of them were delightful as were
the staff. I’ve completed hundreds of school visits and most of them have been
very good or even excellent. This one was excellent.
I read to Y7s from
The House on Schellberg Street, to
Y8s from Spooking and Y9s from The Prophecy (the first of the Peace Child trilogy.) Then we had questions
and answers. We also created characters, a setting and the first dramatic
incident in a story. The students will now write up their stories and we’re
hoping to “build a book” even though this wasn’t a Build
a Book Workshop.
Upcoming events
We’re going into a quiet period. Summer holidays are coming.
It won’t last forever, though.
I will be returning to Salford University as a hourly paid lecturer
at the end of January. I’ll actually be teaching 11-12 hours a week and
eventually marking 188 scripts. My husband has said he’ll buy me a dictionary
so that I can look up what the word “retire” means.
And I also have a feeling that I might get involved in University
of the Third Age, plus I’m open to a lot more school visits again ….
Isn’t life grand?
Giveaway
This month I’m
giving away a copy of The Prophecy, the first
book in the Peace Child trilogy. The first person to message me via Twitter
that they’d like the book - @gilljames – gets it.
Happy reading and
writing.
