How did you interpret the word “Gifted”?
I thought about a small gift, something unexpected when I started writing my story, ‘Just a Packet of Seeds’. As the saying goes; from little acorns, mighty oaks do grow. Sometimes the smallest gifts give the greatest pleasure and from these come the best memories.
How did you find out about our call for submission?
I’ve been writing for Bridge House Publishing for many years now, so I always check out their web pages to keep up-to-date with their submission.
What are the merits for you of the short story form?
Short stories were the best way for me to learn how to write to be published. It can be tough tackling a novel first, which can sometimes be soul-destroying. However, writing short fiction can help you master the basic skills you need for writing your first novel. By writing to a word limit, you can learn how to choose your words wisely, keep your sentences concise, and understand the importance of editing and working on a deadline. Submitting your short fiction can help you develop a thicker skin to deal with rejection. The upside with all the rejected stories is that you have a back catalogue of short stories. A quick re-edit and then you can submit somewhere else. I learned quite quickly that no stories go to waste. You can revisit them as many times as necessary until a spark of inspiration helps you create a story that finally finds a home.
Tell us a little about you as a writer.
I embarked on my writing journey twenty-five years ago when I was thirty-nine. It was a personal challenge to get something published before my fortieth birthday. Despite being poorly educated due to dyslexia, which left me embarrassed about my awful handwriting and weak spelling, I was determined to learn the basics of grammar and punctuation, and also to understand how the publishing industry works. This gave me an insight into what publishers were looking for when submitting my work.
Since I was a single mother working full-time to support my young son, and myself I had limited funds and time. Attending writing courses was not an option for me. Instead, I taught myself from 'how to write' books I found in charity shops, on eBay, and books borrowed from the library.
My effort paid off in 2010 when English Heritage published my first short story. Since then, I have published over a hundred short stories and six books. Although it has been a long journey, I am proud of what I have achieved so far.
Do you have any more forthcoming publications or events?
My latest book is a novella published by Demain Publishing called Never Reaching The End. It tells a tale about a young couple buying a house. It seems some houses don’t let go of their past. I have two short stories published one in CafeLit, the second in Gifted.
Blog: https://colourswordspaper.blog/
Twitter: Paula R C Readman @Darkfantasy13
Amazon Author’s Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Paula-R-C-Readman
I’ve enjoyed a lot of theatre recently. You’ll probably notice that from the number of reviews I’ve written. I was also fortunate to attend a writing workshop run by Stockroom Theatre group who have a residency at the Bolton Octagon to work on The Battle of Bamber Bridge. You can read all about Stockroom here https://www.stockroom.co.uk/
The thrust of the discussion was about the creation and use of historical fiction. You may already know I have my own very concrete ideas about that. Why was it that a pub may have put up a sign saying “Blacks only”? That is considered to be a bit of an urban myth. Stockroom has not been able to substantiate it. But certainly in 1943 the black GIs, who were not allowed to mix with their white colleagues, were made welcome at Bamber Bridge.
It was interesting to compare notes about the writing process when you’re dealing with historical fiction. I still firmly believe that fiction can uncover more truth than a list of selected verifiable facts. It shows instead of telling.
We did intros. That was an epiphany moment for me. I realised I love anything that involves story: novel, short stories, theatre, film and TV. Even gossip at the pub.
I’m pottering on with Peace Child 6. I’m now just finished the third draft which has meant adding a little more to one or two scenes and checking for consistency.
I’ve now completed my set of Tip Sheets for creative writing teachers to use with new writers. New writers will also be able to use them on their own. I’ve created fifty-seven in total. I’ve covered amongst other topics, character, story structure, poetic forms, turning your work into gifts, a submission strategy and some notes about formatting scripts. They are all Word documents so teachers can customise them and students can add notes. Have a look here: https://ko-fi.com/s/bcb3b9bd3c
I’ve been quite busy in many ways:
I’ve written a review of a play directed and translated form Hungarian by a former colleague:
https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/review-the-bat-at-the-new-adelphi-studio-salford
My husband and I attended an hilarious production of a Jeeves and Wooster Play. See my review here: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/jeeves-wooster-in-perfect-nonsense-at-the-octagon-bolton
The Royal Exchange’s’ production of Great Expectations was quite controversial; it was set on the Indian sub-continent as partition was threatened. However, it did work beautifully, I thought. See my review here: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/great-expectations-at-the-royal-exchange-theatre-manchester
Some of my choir friends and I also enjoyed a fabulous amateur production of Sweeney Todd. It was very engaging: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/review-sweeney-todd-the-demon-barber-of-fleet-street It was so good that we forgot we were watching some other members of our choir.
Also in October a colleague and I made a film of one of the self-led walks in Bury: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/bury-self-led-walk-summerseat-valley/
I’m continuing to offer workshops, talks and critiques. Take a look here: https://ko-fi.com/gilljames12122/commissions
I’ve had on the blog a couple of the writers from the Lancashire Authors of Today 2023 anthology on my blog. Look at what David Lythgoe and Michael Higgins have to say.
The stories of refugee Leila and blue fox Miso intertwine.
Both travel a long way. Leila flees from Syria to live in London and then travels on to the Arctic to join her mother who is documenting the fox’s journey. Miso’s story is based on a true one: Anna the fox walked over 2000 miles in seventy-six days. Both Leila and Miso are seeking something. Will they find it?
Note: these are usually mobi-files to be downloaded to a Kindle. Occasionally there are PDFs.
This month I’m offering Veiled Dreams, a YA fantasy romance.
Feisty fifteen-year-old Christina’s parents don’t like her biker boyfriend. They think he’s too old and his hair is too long. She doesn’t like her epilepsy but has to deal with it. An accident leaves her in a coma for several weeks. Whilst in the coma she visits another world where she starts to understand her own awakening sexuality and her illness. She also becomes more tolerant of other people, in particular of those who wear a hijab or burka. But Jan is still waiting for her at home and her new world is getting more real by the minute. Problems abound and she feels alone. She is still in love with Jan, but can she still reach him?
This will be a hard copy and you need to message me with contact details in order to get it.
There is still plenty of free stuff in my dropbox
Grab it here: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/c5k72h7y2731t9wz51f6y/h?rlkey=edyj63vvzj2hisql0u1jpm02v&dl=0 You may have to copy and paste the link.
And please, please, please leave a review, perhaps on Amazon, Good Reads and / or Story Graph, when you’ve finished.
Note: Normally my books and the books supplied by the imprints I manage sell for anything from £0.99 to £10.99. Most on Kindle are about £2.99 and the average price for paperback is £8.00. Writers have to make a living. But I’m offering these free samples so that you can try before you buy.
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.
Sometimes I also write about what might be useful to other writers.
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.
Chapeltown Books News about our books. Sign up here.
The Creative Caf̩ Project News about the project and Caf̩Lit Рfor the consumer rather than for the producer. Sign up 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.
Happy reading and writing.
I’ve done this so often I can’t believe it. I work on a text and make it pretty perfect. I’m talking here about something quite short – maybe an article for the online magazine I work for or even some technical document about a course I’m building. So, I write the email to the person I’m writing for and attach the document - except I attach it in this form rather than the perfected one I have on screen because I’ve forgotten to save it first. So it looks like the above, rather than what you’re reading now.
Similar to this and even more irritating is that occasionally when I go to save a document “as” my computer changes the name of the document to something that I’ve already got in my folder. Well, it’ not just my computes; I have this habit of hovering my mouse over the file list. If I’m not careful I give it the okay to replace the file. I did that twice this morning and have now had to create new files from scratch. Fortunately they were relatively short. And thank goodness that as well as saving everything in two different places we back our work up to a remote server at least once a week .In this case it was quicker to rewrite, though, than go through the rigmarole of downloading.
And then there’s my mouse. It mainly works very well, but one of the buttons is sticking so I keep doing things twice – opening emails, opening web pages, inserting lines into spread sheets. And it often immediately undoes what I’ve just done, for example changing the layout on my Blogger site, confirming that I meant to upload, or even closing a document.
Oh the joys of being a writer! Still, I guess these are trivial really compared what might be happening in an office, a classroom or on the shop floor.
