I'm beginning to be able to write againsin and getting out and about to various activies. i'm srillwaiting to  be allowwedto drive again. The  DVLA is waiting  for a report from the  stroke team  I thinkt theyy're having difficulty keeping up with their admin. I saw a member of the the  team in my May and the notes from our discussion have only just been passed on to my GP.

On My Blog

You can a look at the awards I received from the LAA: https://www.gilljameswriter.com/2026/06/awards.html

I have an offer on my two  latest books for children, ww.gilljameswriter.com/2026/06/buy-these-to-books-fo-q000.html  

I also have an offer on my three flash collections: htps://www.gilljameswriter.com/2026/06/buy-all-three-flsh-collecion-o-1500.html

 

Recommended read

This month I've chosen Under Fire-red Sky by Geraldine McCaughrean

 

aje

Four hildn escp bin evacuated duding War II. This isn't one of McCaugherean's usual feel-good stories; it is much more or brutal. In every paragraph something bad happens. This gives a real sense of what it might be like living in a war zone.  Perhaps a warning about the times we're in now.

find your copy here. 

Giveaway  

 

Love and romance can be tough for a compulsive fibber
Archie has quite a reputation as a practised fibber. Normally his lies are harmless but as time goes by they begin to get him into more and more trouble. They lose him his girlfriend, and bizarrely, his hearing as his ears begin to react in a very strange way every time he is less than truthful. Giving honest opinions isn’t enough. Deep truth is called for. But finding that isn’t easy. Some truths are very hard to face. Then numbers become interesting, too.
Fibbin’ Archie, is, however, more than the story of a disenchanted young man. It is also a writing experiment based on a fascinating number series (Fibonacci!) It is a piece of experimental writing, a humorous story of love and sex, an examination of social issues affecting young adults and a story of coming of age. 

Get you free material here:

https://mailchi.mp/3fec0e970e01/get-your-free-books

 

 

 

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All newsletters and groups.

 

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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.  

 

 

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.

 

 

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Awards

 I wad delighted to receive these awarda yesterday from th LAA:

 

 

but these two books fo £10.00

 

Natascha is forever falling off the piano and getting sucked up by the vacuum cleaner.

Natascha is the smallest of a set of Russian dolls and envies her bigger sisters as they have more detail on them.

The family acquire a new vacuum cleaner and this time it takes Natascha to another world where she has an amazing adventure.  But is it all a dream and related to the story the mummy is reading to young Alfred?

Up to you to decide in Natascha’s intriguing story told by Gill and Ashleigh James.        

 

 

It's rotten having a birthday just before Christmas. 

Sometimes Toby gets just one present for both his birthday and Christmas. Sometimes people just give him money because they've run out of present ideas.  Then when he comes to spend that money there's hardly anything left in the shops. It’s the same this year. He can't find any Lego bricks he wants. 

An old man who reminds him of his Grandpa Jack is sitting cold and hungry on the street. Toby thinks of another use for his birthday money.  What he does afterwards reminds his Grandpa Jack of a well-known Christmas song.  

On the Feast of Stephen by Gill and Ashleigh James is a feel-good story for early readers. 

 

 

 

Buy all three flash collecion o £15.00

 

 

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.

 

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What does that first picture that you see each day on social media say? Sometimes it makes you laugh and sometime it fills you with dread, all of which you must express in exactly 280 words. That was the challenge. It’s up to the reader to decide if it’s been met.

These very short stories wander and wonder through multiple aspects of 21st century life, give a nod to the future and a glance back at the past. They pose questions and occasionally offer suggestions.

Gill James offers food for thought in 280 x 70.

 

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.

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I wasn't expecting that.

 

On 8 January this year I had a stroke.it started with a bus journey when I totally missed my stop. WE now believe I passed out on the bus. I got off about six miles from home and thought the bus had just diverted off the route. Oddly the street I was now in   in had the same name as the h street I thought I was in but it didn't look right. SO I opened Google maps and found I was actually over six miles away from home. I phoned my other half but he couldn't; work out where I was so I sent for an  Uber . It arrived. I had trouble doing up the seat belt so the driver did it for me then refused to move. He sent for another Uber. We now think he must have thought I was drunk The second Uber was much better rand just took me straight home.o My OH was suspicious as soon as I phoned him. I was slurring my speech.

Also my face was distorted. Fortunately my husband he realized and phoned 999 at once. The ambulance was supposed to take forty minutes but it arrived after ten. The emergency service operative and the he paramedics agreed that it looked like a stroke.

Fortunately we'dh hear it a lot on Classic FM

nth useful mnemonic-

fFace drooping.

AArms weak lift up both arm and if one one drops as you try to push it dowhThe stroke is on the opposite side of h the  brain.

SSlurred speech

TTime is of th essence of h essence. – If the stroke is caused  by  a blood clot the  clot needs to be zapped within in four hours.

Thy were waitingwing for me at A& E when we got there got there.Iook eight minutes with blues and twos.By car on a good day we can get here in twelve minutes  tsos.I was admitted very quickly. A CT scan confirmed there was  a blood clot. The thrombolysis must be administered withinn four hours of the stroke happening. I was also very sick and vomited copiously so was given medication to stop that. I was on the admissions ward by 2.30.a.m. But I had no sense of waiting for hours.

 I was moved to the  stroke  ward the next day an in fewer than  twenty-four r hours on to the rehabilitation ward.

Then ca e a regime o awful food, bed- pans and of people taking care of my personal needs Both a CT scan and an x-ray a day later showed that the thrombolysis had caused  a massive bleed,. SO- two brain injuries within forty-eight hours.There followed many many visits from the occupational and speech therapists.

My l ft side was affected, especiallayly my vision.

 I'vve since had an eye tet sand  my vision with  glasses on is perfect. Now I'm waiting n to hear from the DVLA if I'm allowed to drive. I've had   a follow up by a stroke doctor and a GP and have  been pronounced fit by both.

I was in hospital for just under three weeks. The average stay on the rehab ward is three and a half months.specch/ swallow and Occupational therapy carried on at home but I was discharged when I could eat a biscuit efficiently n an I dcoulddtand for a shower and scored100% in a cognitive ability test. And l could get pills out of o blister packs. I still miss objects on my left and walk into furniture. I still have little  appetite and find eating a chore.

I did have carers comein once a day to starteith eih – to help me get dressed in the morning.But they smade somee noise about theyy couldn't; come just to help me wash my back and put on my sdtockings, I thought this a lttllel  nffoair fiasr as other laddies being discharged at about the same etimaad me  a were getting four visits a day and thoswere the ery things wheehata I needed help with , bu I was discharged fromnthis service as well once we had  a shower stool and n it was clear my husband would be ableltotohelp me with anything remaining.

 Unfortunately I was discharged with the noro virus and a urine infection.

Th medics say I have made a very good recovery but I actually don't feel as if I'm fully recovered.I have a brain fog and I can't; type, technology  seems alien to me and I'm constantly locked out of webs istes I've formerly been permanently logged into. I even managed to lock myself out of my phone.

I can't type- you should see the number of squiggly red lines in this text.

Yesteday thy looket t (ENT? MRI)an here is something that can be done.

And I'm waiting ont  the DVLA to confirm that I'm allowed to drive. All the evidence is available to them. I'm'spendig a fortune on Uber at the moment.

 I sill feel quite tired and can only work for four or five hour work s day: I used to do seven or eight.

One advantage:I sleep much better now than I ever have as an adult.  

BUy all thre books fo £12.00

 

Each story in this little volume is the right length and quality for enjoying as you sip the assigned drink in your favourite Creative Café. You need never feel alone again in a café. So what's the mood today? Espresso? Earl Grey tea? Hot chocolate with marshmallows? You'll find most drinks in our drinks index. 

 

Each story in this little volume is the right length and quality for enjoying as you sip the assigned drink in your favourite Creative Café. You need never feel alone again in a café. So what's the mood today? Espresso? Earl Grey tea? Hot chocolate with marshmallows? You'll find most drinks in our drinks index.

 

 

Each story in this little volume is the right length and quality for enjoying as you sip the assigned drink in your favourite Creative Café. You need never feel alone again in a café. So what's the mood today? Espresso? Earl Grey tea? Hot chocolate with marshmallows? You'll find most drinks in our drinks index.

 Buy here

On the Feast of Stephen

Thi is kind of base on a true story. I heard about a little boy who had spent all of his Christmas n money on buying meals for some  poorer people

I know whtit'dis' like to Have a  birthday just before Christmas. Yes. [People run out of ideas for present and a give you money butg there's nothing left to spend it on in the shops.

Toby worries ht hi on grandad might end up like that man he sees siting outside the shopping cntrs. Thenhee has the gretrt idea of howhhe an and his friend can use their love of Lego to help homeless people.

 FInd you opy here

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