Well, I was warned.
“You won’t know how you had time to work once you’re retired.” That is most certainly
true. This first month has whizzed
by. However, I have been quite disciplined
about writing for four hours a day and that’s generally about 3000 words. So, I
am getting on quite well with my work in progress, the fourth in the Schellberg cycle and a couple of
proposals for non-fiction books. Plus a lot of blog posts and newsletters like this
My new blog We
are European is gradually getting followers and I do want others to
write for this, so do take a look.
Bridge House
The proof PDF is now out and due back in today. Debz Hobbs
Wyatt is of course my partner in
this. We’ve also had a look at the cover and have some great ideas bubbling
along.
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’ve
been encouraging my students to submit. I’m beginning to see some of their work
appearing.
The Best of
CaféLit 5 is now available. There are some lovely stories in this. I’m very
pleased that I have a story in this collection. Order your copy here.
We’re getting a few Halloween stories in at the moment.
Spooky fun!
Chapeltown
We’re currently looking for collections of Flash Fiction.
See our submissions page here. We have
two writers signed up already and I’ll be putting out one of my collections as
well soon. Take a look 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 words – 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.
I’m also now proactively encouraging cafes to stock The Best of CafeLit. Do you know anyone who
might like to stock it? We can offer 35% discount to retailers. Query gill at
cafelit dot co dot uk.
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.
Query for a school visit here.
I am also happy to do standard author visits which include readings
from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.
Costs= travel expenses plus £400 for a full day and £200 for
a half day. This includes all materials and some freebies. This is open to negotiation.
The Red Telephone
We are currently
open for submissions. Hoorah! We’re looking for the next great YA novel. Check
out the details here.
We’re particularly open to speculative
fiction but we’ll also like anything that is well written and well-targeted.
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. Four people have now signed up. Room for one
more. We’re running out of space so if you’re hesitating, now is the time to
make your mind up. We look forward t
hearing from you.
Books and short stories
I continue to make good progress on Shooting Hitler.
Clara’s Story is
being serialised. The cover makes this theme quite clear. The novel is can now
be found on Channillo. You may read it here.
Clara’s Story is
the second in the Schellberg circle. All five stories cove roughly the same
period and are very much happening in and associated with Nazi Germany and the
Holocaust. They can be read in any order. The stories overlap to some extent
but where they repeat we see the happening form another point of view. For
instance The House on Schellberg Street
is mainly about a young girl, Renate, who comes to England on the
Kindertranpsort. Clara’s Story is
about her grandmother. Girl in a Smart Uniform
explains how at least one German girl associated with the story became a Nazi –
and then gave it all up. Shooting Hitler
is Renate’s mother’s version of events. In The
Round Robin we learn about what happens to Renate’s friends.
Upcoming events
3 December is the Bridge House / CafeLit celebration. It was
open just to people in the two anthologies. Now we’re opening it to other
guests. We’ve found a pub that will let us use their private space for free. They
must have heard that our writers always spend generously in the bar. Book your
places here:
Giveaway
This month I’m
giving away a copy of The Tower, the third
part of my Peace Child trilogy.
Message me via Twitter = @GillJames. You can have it as either mobi file for
Kindle or as hard copy.
Happy reading and
writing.
Writing opportunities
Remember I keep a
full list of vetted opportunities on my writing
blog. See them here. New
ones are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and
take out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If
you would like to be on that list, sing up here.
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