The Books that Built Me 

 

Yesterday I attended the First Salford Literacy Symposium, run at Media City by the University of Salford. It served to remind me how books have always been so important to me.  I remember my second year at junior school when during the Easter holidays I learnt to swim and made the acquaintance of the Famous Five. The library was just round the corner from the swimming pool. I went for a swim every day and then went to the library to collect some books.  I got though all of the Famous Five books in a fortnight. I’d stopped seeing the little marks on the paper and got the story straight into my head. Since then, reading has become my default activity though I also admit to enjoying a good film or TV series; it’s all about story.

Several of the speakers at the symposium talked about the book that had shaped them and one or two provided a collage of those books. Here’s mine.

Would you like to have a go?

Send me your five, as a picture like the one above, and I’ll post them on my blog.      

           

Writing news

I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. The Great War is now at the forefront and I’m still thinking about taking a trip to Munich for a little research.     

I have two publications in June: 

 

• an article about the Festival of Libraries, run by Manchester City of Literature on Talking About My Generation
• my short story ‘Chez Robert’ appears on Medium.
  

                                 

 

On My Blog

 

I discuss my involvement with the special book Aftermath.  I often give authors an opportunity to talk about their published stories, so why not me this time? 

 

 

 I share my thoughts about working with editors.

 

 

  

I have an offer on two books for young adults that deal with the paranormal.

 

 

 

I interview Ben C.Davies about his recently published collection of short stories.    

 

The Young Person’s Library 

 

This month I’ve added a fantasy / adventure book for fluent readers: 

 

 

There is also a picture book that is all about getting the mostout of your garden. Reader age is difficult to define. But this is an absolutely charming book. 

 

   

Recommended read

This month I choose How To grow a Garden by Frances Tophill and Charlotte Ager  

 

This is beautiful large picture book. It’s certainly suitable for children but also makes a good read for their parents and grandparents.

A contents page near the beginning of the book identifies sections: Flowers and Herbs, Trees, Hedges and Edges, Grass, Fruit and Veg, Water, Exotic Plants and Further Resources.

Each double spread shows pictures of the topics discussed and provides bite-sized information.

At the end of each section there are suggestions about what you can do in each season.

The book opens with an introduction about how the text works. It invites the reader to join in an interesting journey.

Throughout the text there are many activities suggested to the reader.

There is a glossary and an index at the end of the book.

Frances Tophill and Charlotte Ager will certainly get you enthusing about your garden in their inspirational How to Grow a Garden.   

 

Giveaway  

This month I’m giving away a copy of 140 x140  

 

This anthology of women's fiction, this collection of very short stories, some might say a flash collection, is thought-provoking and each story is based upon a tweet. Except that each piece is 140 words long and not 140 characters.

They were collected over three years and edited for another nine months.

RRP £7.00 

 

Sign up to receive this news in your inbox each month and then download this free book.  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.

 

Just one post this month where I reflect on banned books. I’ve centred this on the book by Kirsten Miller, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. The text is problematic in some ways but Miller makes several valid points.      

 

 

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.

 

 

Ben C. Davies and 'And So I Took Their Eye'

  Today I talk to Ben about  his newly published collection of short stories.  

 

 

We might describe And So I Took Their Eye as a collection of short stories. And yet it is more than that. Could you comment on the connection between the stories?
Absolutely. While each story can stand on its own, the collection is designed to echo and overlap in both subtle and more obvious ways. Characters reappear or are referenced indirectly, showing up in different forms and contexts. The first and last stories are told by the same narrator, but more than ten years pass between them, and a lot happens in the interim, involving a wide cast of characters spread across the globe.
 

It’s a web rather than a line, and my hope is that the connections build as you read, creating a deeper and more layered experience.

Can you tell us a little about what inspired you to put this collection together?
The inspiration came from real places and experiences, some of them mine and others that I witnessed. I didn’t set out to write a collection; it came together gradually as I realised the stories were speaking to each other. That’s when I began weaving them more deliberately.
 

Many of the stories are retellings of personal events, pushed in different directions. I often imagined how characters might react in situations I’d been in, and explored what would happen if those reactions were taken to extremes, for better or worse.

What would you say are the merits of the short story?
Short stories require precision. With limited space, every sentence has to earn its place.
 

They also allow for experimentation with structure, theme, and tone in a way novels sometimes don’t. You can take creative risks, which I really did with this collection. It was fun to explore and challenge myself. Sometimes those risks work, sometimes they don’t, but the short form gives you the freedom to try.

Are you a fan of the short story yourself, and do you have any favourite writers?
Absolutely. I usually read novels, but I love short fiction too. Jhumpa Lahiri’s Roman Stories and Jared Lemus’s Guatemalan Rhapsody are collections threaded together by place, culture and identity, which I really enjoyed. I also really like Shehan Karunatilaka, and Lucia Berlin.

What was the editing process like for you?
By the time the manuscript was complete, I felt many of the stories were in the best shape they could be, especially since nearly all of them had already been published. Then Bridge House took the book on, and I had the chance to work with Allison Symes. I was lucky. She brought a fresh perspective to every story and helped take them further than I could have on my own, not just on the sentence level, but in terms of the stories’ direction and depth. It changed a lot, and the book is so much stronger for it. I’m incredibly grateful for her insight and care.

Do you have any tips for anyone wanting to write short stories and get them published?
Start small and submit often. Literary magazines and journals are great places to share your work, and the submission process helps build discipline, persistence, and confidence.
 

It probably goes without saying, but read widely in the form. And if you can, find a writing community. Feedback and encouragement are invaluable.

And what about putting a collection together?
As I mentioned, I love when stories are connected, even if only loosely. While working on this collection, I thought a lot about how the stories fit together—through plot, theme, and tone.

Once I had about five solid stories in place, I started writing with an overarching narrative in mind. It became less like sequencing an album and more like creating a concept album, a la Sgt. Pepper’s, especially with the bookended stories. Each story adds something different, but the whole should still feel cohesive.

Are you working on any other projects at the moment?
Yes, two. I’m currently pitching a novel set in Guatemala that explores tourism, corruption, and foreign intervention in a rural village. It’s a story close to my heart, based on time I spent living there. I’ve also just started a new project that looks at the American Dream and its unravelling. It’s still early days, but I’m excited to see where it goes.

Do you have any book events planned?
I do. I’ll be speaking at the San Francisco Writers Grotto on July 18, the day after the book comes out. I also have an event planned in London on August 19. I’ll share more details soon on my website and Instagram. If you’re interested, please do come join.

 

 Some endorsements of the collection: 

 Find you copy here 

Two YA books about the paranormal on offer

 

 

Devils, demons, werewolves and other creatures of the night don’t have to be scary. In fact, at times they can be downright funny. They have their fair share of the type of problems we humans have – pesky monthly cycles, others out to get them, a lack of what they need and a surfeit of what they don’t want. They’re not immune to recessions either.

But we wouldn’t want to disappoint you. There are plenty of moments in this little collection that make you hold your breath, make you want to lock the door and turn the lights up and make you wish you hadn’t stayed home alone.

Laugh, cry and prepare to be scared… 

 

Tom crashes his car and he wakes up in an unfamiliar place. He is unable to reach Amanda. They argued just before the crash. He meets cheeky but friendly Marcus, who, though younger than Tom, has more experience in the areas that now matter. But Marcus has his own concerns and eventually has to leave Tom to deal with his problems on his own. How can Tom let Amanda know how much he loves her? Does she feel the same way? Will they ever be able to move forward?

£15.00 

 

 

Working with Editors

So, we get the publishing deal, all seems well and then we start working with an editor – and at times it’s as if we’re being asked to make a lot of changes. There are a couple of things to remember here though: - you book has already been accepted so this is about making it the best it can be, not about finding fault with it, and the editorial staff are on your side.

I guess I am writing this partly from the point of view of an editor but if I’d known these things when I first started having work accepted and then was put under scrutiny of an in-house editor I’d have felt a lot more comfortable.  

1.     Make sure the text is the best it can be

You’ll often be asked to send the very latest version of your text.  And you will be given a deadline, sometimes a quite generous one.  Take this opportunity to edit your text once again.  Chances are it’s a while since you last touched the text. You’ve grown as a writer since then and you might notice something you didn’t see earlier now that you have a little distance.

The better your text is in the first place, the better it will be once edited.

2.     Take notice of what the editor says

Very often an editor will notice something is out of kilter but what they suggest isn’t always the best solution. Respect their wisdom. They have some experience at this. But it’s now up to you to come up with something even better.

Even a lot of comments and tracked changes don’t mean they think the text is bad. Chances are that a lack of experience or imposter syndrome is talking.

Very occasionally you will disagree with an editor. You’ll stand more chance of being taken seriously if you have shown your trust and respect earlier in the process.

3.     Be disciplined

You’re likely to go through three stages of editing and then a proof read. Don’t muddy the waters by addressing at the second stage what should have happened in the first one. Be thorough in each edit.  Don’t attempt to add a new scene at proof read stage. And be disciplined about naming each edit so that you and your editor have full version control.    

Your in-house editor is your friend. They are on your side.  

Aftermath and I

 

Many of the contributors to Aftermath answered the following questions so I thought I would too. The pandemic is part of the past now and it is a significant piece of history that we have lived through. Aftermath is a creative response to the time as we emerged from the pandemic.    

So here is something about my stories in Aftermath - but without any spoilers! 

I have two stories in the anthology - The Rise of the Zenoton’ and ‘The New Normal’.

The Zenoton come from my science fiction ‘Peace Child’ series. They are not human but very like humans. They have one interesting physical feature: instead of hair they have medusa-like fleshy locks that change colour according to their mood. They have lived through a pandemic that was worse than an earlier one they had that was worse than Covid:

“It’s worse than we expected. We’ve never had anything like this on Zenoto before. It’s deadlier even than the Covid-19 disease on Terrestra in 2020, worse even than the Peace Child disease they had after the poison cloud lifted. It kills and it kills quickly and painfully. The death rate is doubling every two days and newer cases are tripling every day.”

It was the recovery from that pandemic that made them into a moneyless society. Moneyless, not just cashless. They are admired throughout the universe for this.

‘The New Normal’’ shows a rather grumpy old man adapting to lockdown and then finding a new normal as we come out of the pandemic. He is now quite proficient at using Zoom.      

 What inspired you to write this?

Both stories are an attempt to explore the effect of the pandemic and importantly how we may have even improved the way we live as we come out of it. They’re both cases of using fiction to explore real life.   

Why did you think it important to contribute to this collection?

As it was my concept in the first place of course I thought it was important. I see the whole book – and its predecessor Covid 19: an extraordinary time as a time capsule, a record of the time.  

 

     How did I cope with pandemic?

I remember being very scared at first.  We cut a holiday short and then the first time we needed groceries my husband went out at the usual time on a Friday, just after 8.00 a.m. I expected him to take hours and told myself I wouldn’t start worrying until tea time.  He was back just after 9.30. He used to go out earlier and be back later. We never lacked toilet paper, pasta or flour. And he still shops at the same time.  The pandemic helped him to find a sweet spot.  After the school rush (yes, he used to trip up over teenagers buying healthy food) but before it became busy and after the shelves had been restocked.  

Zoom became my friend and has remained so. I love face-to-face meetings now but the online gatherings offer a wider scope.   

I was labelled vulnerable so isolated effectively. In the end I quite enjoyed being at home.   However, now that everything is back to normal’ I appreciate ‘normal’ even more.

     Can you tell us about your other publications?

I II guess most of you reading this know me quite well but here’s the list: science fiction novels for young adults, historical feisty women for women, short stories and flash fiction for everyone and a lot material liklike this. See my Amazon author page .

FiFind your copy of Aftermath here