Gill's Newsletter
Up in The Lake District
We’ve enjoyed a few days up in the Lake District where summer arrived at
last though thankfully we didn’t get the heat endured by people further
south in this country or elsewhere in Europe.
We usually go to the Lakes off-season, so it was a little bit of a shock
to find car parks full and lots of people using the crazy golf and
Frisbee lawn near to our holiday cottage.
It’s good to take a little time to sit and enjoy nature or people watch.
Naturally, I’ve visited my favourite book shop,
Verey Books. This features on the Creative Café Project site:
http://www.creativecafeproject.org/2023/11/verey-books.html It has a great café and as one would expect does book events.

I had to buy a book and I chose
The Lost Spells by Robert Macfarlene and Jackie Morris. I have of course read it before - and reviewed it at
https://www.theyoungpersonslibrary.co.uk/2020/11/the-lost-spells-by-robert-macfarlane.html
The Lost Spells is a companion book for the huge
The Lost Words. Both contain exquisite pictures and words and the web site offers lots of other ways to consider the material.
It so happens that there is an exhibition of
The Lost Words, The Lost Spells and Jackie Morris’ work at
Rheged,
the arts, crafts and good food outlet just a five minute drive from
where we were staying. It cost £5.00 per person to get into exhibition
but it is well worth it. It is on until 1 September.
All of this feeds the creative spirit somehow. Yes, I love my work but holidays are still good.
Writing news
I’ve just finished the ‘kill off your darlings’ edit of
Peace Child 6.
The Best of CafeLit is now out. I edited this and it has one of my stories in it.

PHOTOS BY BREIGE COBANE PHOTOGRAPY
On My Blog
I’ve also written a little about some companies I find really useful: Some companies I engage with
The Young Person’s Library

Recommended read
I read
Someone Else’s Shoes by Jo jo Moyes for our book club and then we didn’t meet. Nevertheless, it’s a good read.
So, two women end up swapping gym bags and therefore shoes when one of
them leaves in a hurry. The gym goes bankrupt, and there is more to the
designer shoes than either woman could possibly imagine.
Neither has a perfect marriage and having to live in each other’s shoes for a while makes life even more complicated.
Some say the story is far-fetched. It is and it becomes almost like a
Whitehall farce towards the end. Yet it comes good for all of the women
involved. It is all a little improbable but sometimes stories have to be
that way. Think Dickens, Molière, Shakespeare and most pantomimes.
Jo Jo Moyes certainly persuades us to watch the backs of all of the ladies that feature in
Someone Else’s Shoes.
Note, this is an affiliate link and a small
portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you, may go to Bridge
House Publishing.
Worth a read.
Giveaway
This month I’m giving away
The House of Clementine.
Grab your copy
here. You’ll find two different e-book files and a PDF plus a lot of other free materials here.
There is unease on Zandra. On far away Zenoto a young president
appears to be turning his back on the innovative and hugely successful
financial regime. The Peace Child again has much to do.
It becomes personal. Kaleem’s former girlfriend and her desperately ill step-daughter are attacked.
Some strange encounters partly answer some of Kaleem’s
questions. But as he begins to understand what “snazzy” really means and
what the brown tunics want, he is faced with yet more puzzles: who or
what exactly is Meelak, what is the House of Clementine and how much
control does it have, and what or who is really behind the unrest?
Will the Peace Child find his own peace? Find out in this fourth novel in the Peace Child series.
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.
I’m still writing about resistance to the Nazis and this month I’ve added a post about
Turning a blind eye to others not obeying the rules and about those
Dragging feet on new initiatives including those who were working on the V2 bombs.
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.