We do go there often. It take just about an hour and half to get from our home to just the other side of Penrith. Whitbarrow. For three of the days we were there a road was closed while they laid a new water main so we were forced to go via the village of Greystoke. It’s quite a detour but extremely rewarding. And Greystoke has a castle, no less. It isn’t open to the public and this somehow makes it even more appealing. There’s something about the name… I feel a story coming on…. Which secrets does this castle hide?
We also enjoyed a puppet theatre at the Upfront Arts Venue.This has a café and a gallery as well so this will soon be featured on my Creative Café Project site. They hold live music events. Thie gift shop is very tempting and not too expensive.
Naturally I had to visit my favourite Lakeland bookshop atPooley Bridge and I just had to buy a couple of books. I chose ‘Fin & Ana’ books by R. Fox They’re in a similar format to the classic Beatrix Potter stories. The stories are a little twee but nevertheless charming. The pictures look as if they’ve been generated by AI and the books are clearly sell-published. Not that that means they can’t be of good quality. There is little information about the books on Amazon but plenty on R Fox’s author page.
Each book ends with a description of a walk in the area where the story is set.
I’ll have to read these more carefully before I make any sort of judgement and anyway I suspect they’ll end up in The Young Person’s Library.
Writing news
I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. It now seems to be almost more about how homosexuality was treated in Nazi Germany than about the resistance, Neverthelss, one of the main characters, Adelhard Braun, may even be distracted by his involvement in resisting the Nazis from the problems that his homosexuality pose.
I have a review of Of Mice and Men on Talking About My Generation:
This was an interesting performance in that a story that embraces little inclusivity is inclusive: one actor is blind and two are autistic. As ever, a very moving story.
I have a second article on Talking About My Generation about the Manchester City of Literature Map. visit the Alliance Française and also offer some creative writing in other language exercises.
On My Blog
I have a special offer where you can buy all of my Schellberg books in paperback form for £20.00
There is an Leexcerpt of my resource for creative writing teachers Let’s Get Writing This includes information about how to find the resource.
There is an appeal for a review of The Best of CafeLit 4 As ever, please remember how important reviews are for us writers. They don’t need to be long and they should be constructive. It is possible to do both in a two to four lines!
I also have a short article about reliance on how the Internet may have stopped us juststumbling across some information: Is there something to be gained from older technology?
The Young Person’s Library
I’ve added two books this month, both of them YA
First, there is the final part of Jeanette Greaves’ Ransomed Hearts series. Silverwood Rising tells of the werewolf community now out into the open and recognised by the general public.
Then there is Monika Feth’s Der Libellenflüsterer is a thriller for YA. It contains multiple points of view and it really improved my German vocab.
Recommended read
This month I choose Silverwood Rising mentioned above.
This is the fourth and final book in Jeanette Greaves ‘Ransomed Hearts’ series.
Yes, we certainly all know by now that this series is about werewolves and Greaves has created her own brand of them.
Giveaway
This month I’m giving away a copy of January Stones
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.
Sign up to receive this news letter monthly and grab your free materials. 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.
In case you’re not already familiar with it I’ve posted an excerpt from The House on Schellberg Street on the blog. I’ve chosen the second chapter this time. This is the first chapter in the thread about the house itself.
I’ve written a review of Michael Rosen’s One Day. This is a story about Holocaust survival and about living one day at a time. I’m not convinced though that this is a picture book for children.
I’ve also taken a look at the attempts to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality
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.
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