News 2 March 2022

 

Many of us are feeling anxious and horrified at what is happening in the Ukraine. Some unprecedented sanctions are now being taken against Russia and that must be affecting the lives of ordinary Russians. Truth is being stranger than fiction again. If you’d written this as a story two years ago might some publisher have accuse you of being too far-fetched?  Even as we were entering an extraordinary situation at precisely that time.   

I took two taxis today and they cost considerably more than the last time I made that journey. Yes, there was heavy traffic on the way into town but coming back was quick. Hardly surprising; we passed several petrol stations and the prices were horrific. 

Is it part of our remit as writers to write and record what we observe from whichever angle we’re seeing it?

And yet; the sun is shining outside, there are green shoots everywhere. The snowdrops and crocuses are in full bloom and I even saw some daffodils yesterday.  Well, it is 1 March. Nature is just getting on with it.     

Current writing

I’ve now well into the sixth book in the Schellberg Cycle. This is Helga’s story. Helga is a Holocaust survivor and the story is set partly in World War II and partly in 2001. The more modern part is set in North Wales and I have to learn about sheep farming in Wales! The story is as ever taking on a life of its own and the plot is even more intricate than the way I’d seen it.      

I have just one short story out this month and actually in CafeLit: https://www.cafelitmagazine.uk/2022/02/afterwards.html   This was in response to a prompt. “Afterwards.”  I deliberately used the word “after” a lot.

 

The Young Person’s Library

This month the The Hive and Bookshop.org have made some suggestions. So, this month I’ve added

Refuge  by Anne Booth and Sam Usher

This is a picture book that tells the less well celebrated part of the nativity when Joseph, Mary and Jesus have to flee to Egypt. Charmingly it is told from the point of view of the donkey that accompanies them.       

Santa’s Lost Buttons by Kirsty-Louise Garbutt and Meneer Marcleo  

This is another picture book. Children can have fun finding the lost buttons in the pictures. And there is a surprise at the end of the book as well.

I even added one book today but that will appear in next month’s newsletter.

 

Current reading recommendation

I’m recommending today Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys

A mysterious adventure that navigates tricky cross-class relationships.

Who is the odd-looking woman who has murdered someone and who has been killed?

The book opens with this figure being escorted by two policemen from a ship that has docked in Sydney. We are kept guessing right up unto the very end. In the meantime, we meet many women who may have committed this crime and we might even decide there are several passengers on board the ship that we might feel like murdering if we were trapped with them for several weeks

The action takes place in 1939 and our travellers arrive in Australia within a few hours of the beginning of World War II. Protagonist Lily is travelling on an assisted passage to find work in service. This scheme existed to remedy a labour shortage in Australia.  Young women travelled tourist class and were well looked after as well as being given the chance to see something of the world before they settled down into domestic service. They would have to stay for at least two years. 

Rachel Rhys draws her characters well and keeps us guessing about what actually happens in Dangerous Crossing. 

Find your 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 Tower, the third story in the Peace Child series.

 

Kaleem has given up the love of his life in order to protect her. He now lives and works on Zandra. A sudden landquake, not known on the planet for many years, destroys many of the forests his father has planted to bring life back to the planet. The new relationship Kaleem has helped to establish between the Terrestrans and the Zandrians is also under threat. A third party gets involved and Kaleem has to use all of his diplomatic skills to keep everything on track. Mistakes cost him dearly and he looks set to lose Rozia for a second time. The Babel Tower mystery, others mysteries and sadness plague him. Can he find a way through to fulfil his role as the Peace Child?

 

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 two posts this month. One explores how the hate develops and how this is happening in my latest novel in the cycle: Exploring the Hate.    

I also define the difference between a series and a cycle: The Difference between a Series and a Cycle

 

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.

 

News 1 January 2022

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.

News 3 December 2021

 

A new regime  

I have made a slight change to my writing routine and the results have bene very rewarding. Now, my first task of the day it to submit a piece of writing. This will involve another edit / proof read and the due diligence about finding the right publisher. It’s an exciting start to the day. I’ve been doing this now for a couple of weeks and already it’s paying off. Okay, so I’ve had two rejections (from older submissions) but also two acceptances, for work submitted this week.

So, I’m recommending this approach.        

Current writing

I’m now on the twelfth draft of my fifth Peace Child novel, The Glastonbury Specification. It’s now almost ready for the next stage.   

The Big Book of Prompts, which combines Prompts 2020, 2021 and 2022 is now finished and will be released at the end of 2022. I’m now working on a manual for writers’ group now. It will have 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, sharing work, with suggestions of how to do the latter and suggestions of how to build on the work.

I’ve had two articles published with Talking about My Generation: https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/creative-writing-adventures-writing-the-seaside/

https://talkingaboutmygeneration.co.uk/where-i-call-home-west-bromwich-salford-wales-or-bury/

 

The Young Person’s Library

I’ve added three books this month, all fluent reader texts:

October, October by Katya Balen (illustrations by Angela Harding) This crosses over into teen. A young girl lives with her father in a home in the woods.  Both of them love nature. But changes have to be made when her father is badly injured in a fall from a tree.

 

Gracie Fairshaw and the Trouble at the Tower   My kind of book! This is a well-told and well-written tale. Here The Family from One End Street, meets Noel Streatfield, meets the Secret Seven, with a good deal of quirkiness and a 21st problem thrown in.

 

A Boy Called Christmas by Matt Haig illustrated by Chris Mould  Really great for this time of the year. This story contains some familiar tropes, some quirky passages and the sadness that Nikolas loses his father.

I’m reading most books on Kindle these days but I do buy physical books for young people though YA will also go on Kindle. I source most of these books from The Hive. I really recommend this lovely online shop that supports indie bookshops and delivers promptly.   

 

 

Current reading recommendation

I really enjoyed the Gracie Fairshaw book described above. So, I’m recommending that one his month.

The story is set in Blackpool 1935 as Christmas approaches. But someone is trying to sabotage the Children’s Ballet Christmas spectacular. A piece of scenery injures a dancer, another dancer has itching powder put inside her costume and a several poisonous-pen letters are sent. Naughty chimps and escaping lions add to the drama.  The damage the chimps do often looks like part of the sabotage.  

Gracie becomes a reporter for the local newspaper. This affords the reader several details about what a writer does – and helps Gracie to do more investigating.  

There are many details of time and place here. We have a glimpse of what Christmas was like back then and in a boarding house in particular. Paper chains feature in abundance. 

Susan Brownrigg is a brilliant story teller.  This is a well-told and well-written tale. Here The Family from One End Street, meets Noel Streatfield, meets the Secret Seven, with a good deal of quirkiness and a 21st problem thrown in.  I hope Brownrigg will bring us many more episodes about Gracie.      

The book is 235 pages long – some forty pages longer than the first book in the series.  The text is blocked but double-spaced. The font has a serif. The chapters are relatively short.  Chapter headings are in a cursive font and are fronted with a picture of an envelope with a question mark on it. At the end of the book there is a glossary which contains a lot more information about Blackpool, a note from the author on her research about the Children’s Ballet, and an author bio.           

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 short story collection: Other Ways of Being  

Stories that suggest alternative ways of life.  

Is a stranger a threat or is he just trying to help? It may be as clever as being a fortune-teller but is it helpful?

Is the wild woman really a little girl that she used to know? Will they be safe now or should they worry about the bright soldiers marching? Which horror does the deep sleeper hide?

Who was that strange child? How did they manage to feed so many people?

Can a couple remain together even when their natures threaten to keep them apart? Is a seemingly incompetent wizard cleverer than he seems? What happens when an alien makes a mistake and almost gives himself away? Do animals help each other in their struggle against the damage that humans are doing? Who exactly is the lady in blue? Is Bradley’s the best story ever?

Can a man survive in a dystopian future if he has no more human contact? What can ATMs do when society goes moneyless? What happens when the money runs out? Just how smart will the smartphone get? Or driverless cars for that matter? Where will we find sanctuary when the extremists start winning? What happens to the clones when the blueprint gets sick?

Will we get used to Toni?

Other Ways of Being is a collection of thought-provoking stories that have all been published elsewhere first.    

 

Find out and 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 two posts this month. Both of them are really about my plans for future stories.

Find them here:

More stories coming soon

More about Helga’s Story

  

 

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.