The Books that Built Me
Yesterday I attended the First Salford Literacy Symposium, run at Media City by the University of Salford. It served to remind me how books have always been so important to me. I remember my second year at junior school when during the Easter holidays I learnt to swim and made the acquaintance of the Famous Five. The library was just round the corner from the swimming pool. I went for a swim every day and then went to the library to collect some books. I got though all of the Famous Five books in a fortnight. I’d stopped seeing the little marks on the paper and got the story straight into my head. Since then, reading has become my default activity though I also admit to enjoying a good film or TV series; it’s all about story.
Several of the speakers at the symposium talked about the book that had shaped them and one or two provided a collage of those books. Here’s mine.
Would you like to have a go?
Send me your five, as a picture like the one above, and I’ll post them on my blog.
Writing news
I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. The Great War is now at the forefront and I’m still thinking about taking a trip to Munich for a little research.
I have two publications in June:
- an article about the Festival of Libraries, run by Manchester City of Literature on Talking About My Generation
- my short story ‘Chez Robert’ appears on Medium.
On My Blog
I discuss my involvement with the special book Aftermath. I often give authors an opportunity to talk about their published stories, so why not me this time?
I share my thoughts about working with editors.
I have an offer on two books for young adults that deal with the paranormal.
I interview Ben C.Davies about his recently published collection of short stories.
The Young Person’s Library
This month I’ve added a fantasy / adventure book for fluent readers:
There is also a picture book that is all about getting the mostout of your garden. Reader age is difficult to define. But this is an absolutely charming book.
Recommended read
This month I choose How To grow a Garden by Frances Tophill and Charlotte Ager
This is beautiful large picture book. It’s certainly suitable for children but also makes a good read for their parents and grandparents.
A contents page near the beginning of the book identifies sections: Flowers and Herbs, Trees, Hedges and Edges, Grass, Fruit and Veg, Water, Exotic Plants and Further Resources.
Each double spread shows pictures of the topics discussed and provides bite-sized information.
At the end of each section there are suggestions about what you can do in each season.
The book opens with an introduction about how the text works. It invites the reader to join in an interesting journey.
Throughout the text there are many activities suggested to the reader.
There is a glossary and an index at the end of the book.
Frances Tophill and Charlotte Ager will certainly get you enthusing about your garden in their inspirational How to Grow a Garden.
Giveaway
This month I’m giving away a copy of 140 x140
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.
RRP £7.00
Sign up to receive this news in your inbox each month and then download this free book. 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.
Just one post this month where I reflect on banned books. I’ve centred this on the book by Kirsten Miller, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books. The text is problematic in some ways but Miller makes several valid points.
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.
