Saturday, 1 January 2022

News 1 January 2022

New Year'S Day, Sylvester, 2022, New Year'S Eve

Happy New Year 

 A happy new year to you. Let’s hope 2022 is a good one.  

Do any of you have any new writing ambitions? If you’d care to share them I’ll hold you to them and check in with you from time to time. My own aspirations are a little vague: write better, be more determined, but above all continue to enjoy the process.

I have to have some routine surgery in the next few weeks. I’ve been advised to shield until then. I’m seeing this as an opportunity to get stuck into my writing.          

Current writing

I’m now on penultimate draft of my fifth Peace Child novel, The Glastonbury Specification. In fact, I’m near the end of that. Then I’ll be transferring it form Scrivener to Word for the final edit. This is always an interesting process. It can show up some previously unnoticed typos and formatting issues. It’s also very useful seeing it in a different form.  

I’m also almost finished my manual for writers’ group now. It has fifty-two plans for creative writing sessions. This includes a description of equipment needed, any activity that needs to be done in advance, timing for writing and sharing work, with suggestions of how to do the latter and suggestions of how to build on the work.

I’ve had another article published with Talking about My Generation: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/memories-of-christmas-day-growing-up-rituals-of-christmas-past This has also appeared in the print version of the magazine.

My novella, Rozia’s U-log, is serialised on Channillo: https://channillo.com/series/rozia-s-u-log/  The story is a bridge between books two and three of the Peace Child series, Babel and  The Tower. It tells the story of what has happened to one of the medium-strength characters between the two books.  

 

The Young Person’s Library

Alas, no new books added this month. Come on The Hive.

I really recommend this lovely online shop that supports indie bookshops and delivers promptly.   

Please can you make some more recommendations in children’s books?

 

 Current reading recommendation

I’ve been a little bogged down with reading Mr Dickens this month and I’m not actually recommending him this time. Well, we all already know he’s good, don’t we?    

I won three books by Katie Flynn in the draw at the U3A Christmas dinner. They are as one might expect delightful easy reads. I’ve read two so far and the one I prefer of these two is Liverpool Taffy.

It is set in 1930s’ Liverpool where Biddy O'Shaughnessy works at a sweet shop. After her mother dies she is taken in and almost enslaved by the sweet shop’s owner.  She escapes to live with a friend for a short while. The friend is a “kept woman” and Biddy has to move on again when her friends’ lover dies and her friend finds herself pregnant.  Biddy goes into service but encounters complications here as well.

The characters are engaging. The story rattles along at a good pace and has an upbeat ending. It’s quite a long read but good for this time of the year or as a holiday read.

It’s the type of book I’d like to write myself.      

Grab you copy here.  

 

 Giveaway

Note: these are usually mobi-files to be downloaded to a Kindle.  Occasionally there are PDFs.

This month I’m offering my The Prophecy, the first story in the Peace Child series.

Kaleem Malkendy is different – and on Terrestra, different is no way to be.
Everything about Kaleem marks him out from the rest: the blond hair and dark skin, the uncomfortable cave where he lives and the fact that he doesn’t know his father. He’s used to unwelcome attention, but even so he’d feel better if some strange old man didn’t keep following him around.

That man introduces himself and begins to explain the Babel Prophecy – and everything in Kaleem’s life changes forever.  

Find out more.  Grab your copy and lots of other freebies here.

And please, please, please leave a review 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 £7.00. Writers have to make a living. But I’m offering these free samples so that you can try before you buy.

 

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.

Sometimes I also write about what might be of interest to other writers.

I’ve added just one post this month. This is actually about something that can happen as part of the publishing process. It’s just so ironic that it hit the book about Clara.  Read the post here:

Clara let down again   

 

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 book 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 Café Project News about the project and CaféLit – for 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.     

 

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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