Cyber Event

In fact I’ve got a couple I’m working on as I’m working with a newly-published author on another one.

I’m discussing here the one that I’m holding on 29 March. It will run from 6.30 p,m. until 9.00 p.m. and in many ways will replicate what happens in an actual event. I’m working with four other lovely ladies.    

We’ll each take the “floor” for half an hour each so the schedule runs like this:

Jenny Palmer 6.30 – 7.00  

Jenny Palmer lived and worked abroad and in London for many years, teaching English to foreign students. She has co-edited four anthologies of short stories, published by the Women's Press and Serpents Tail. Following her return to Lancashire in 2008, she self-published two memoirs and a family history. 'Nowhere better than home' is a childhood memoir about growing up in rural Lancashire in the 50s and 60s.  'Pastures New' is the sequel and covers the heady days of the 70s and 80s.  'Whipps, Watsons and Bulcocks: a Pendle family history' traces the history of her family, who have lived in the same house for 400 years. Her poems and short stories have been published in the Lancashire Evening Post, on the Cafelit website and in various local anthologies. 'A59' and 'Fatal Flaws' are in the Best of Cafelit 3 and 5.

Libby O’Loghlin  7.00 – 7.30 

Libby O’Loghlin is an Australian novelist and prize-winning short story writer who has co-founded various community orgs in Switzerland including The Woolf Quarterly, an online cultural magazine. Her Young Adult coming-of-age action adventure, Charlotte Aimes, was longlisted for the Bath Children's Novel Award in 2015. She also writes collaboratively as one half of Political Thriller author Christoph Martin (The Expansion, coming May 2).

Twitter: @libby_ol

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Libby-OLoghlin-500174790096715/

BOOK Charlotte Aimes: getBook.at/CharlotteAimes (global book linker for Amazon) 

  or via the webpage charlotteaimes.com

Clare Weze  7.30 – 8.00 

About me and my writing:

Born in London and raised mostly in Yorkshire, I have British and Nigerian* heritage, so of course, I love everything Scandinavian (not just The Killing and The Bridge, but Danish cakes too). I also like jazz, blues, big cities, deep countryside and hares. (If the hares happen to be boxing, it’s the icing on the cake.)
I came to writing via a circuitous route. Or rather, my writing was hijacked by other careers along the way, beginning with a stint as a hairdresser in London’s West End. A science degree naturally followed from that (!), then postgraduate studies, which led to work in the fields of biomedical and environmental research. I now divide my time between editing scientific publications and writing fiction. The two marry well.
My first book was Cloudscapes over the Lune, a collaboration with Mary Sylvia Winter, Melissa Bailey, Sarah Dobbs and Kay Douglas to raise money for two children’s charities.
In 2014, Curiosity Quills published Gears of Brass, a steampunk anthology featuring my story ‘The Archive Room’.
The Snowflakes anthology came out in 2015, published by Bridge House Publishing and featuring my story ‘Undertow’.

Awards:

I’m delighted to have won a Northern Writers’ Award to support the development of my new short story collection.
The first draft of The House of Ash was shortlisted for the Commonword Children’s Diversity Writing Prize 2012, run in association with Puffin Books and RCW Literary Agency. This book is now in final edits.
(* Weze is pronounced way-zay)

Catherine Green 8. 00 – 8.30 

Author of British paranormal romance series The Redcliffe Novels, Catherine Green was raised on books from a young age, and has happy memories of Saturday mornings spent in her small local library, devouring the contents of the shelves. Catherine has always been fascinated by the supernatural world, and it feels natural for her to write about vampires, werewolves, witches and other mystical creatures in her contemporary stories.

If you sign up to Catherine’s newsletter, she will send you a free copy of her Redcliffe short story, It’s Complicated, to introduce you to her fictional supernatural seaside town in Cornwall, England.

More recently, Catherine released her contemporary English Gothic novel, The Vampire of Blackpool. These novels will show you the darker, sexier side of our favourite British seaside resorts!

You can find Catherine in the following places:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpookyMrsGreen

Author blog: http://www.catherinegreenauthor.blogspot.co.uk/

Twitter page: https://twitter.com/SpookyMrsGreen

The Pagan Housewife Blog: http://spookymrsgreen.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spookymrsgreen/

Gill James  8.30 – 9.00

Gill James writes fiction for middle grade and young adults. She is currently working on a cycle of novels set mainly in Nazi Germany.

She is published by Crooked Cats, Tabby Cat Press, The Red Telephone and Butterfly. She is a part-time Lecturer in Creative Writing at Salford University.

She offers workshops on creative writing, book-building, creative writing in other languages and the Holocaust and life in Nazi Germany.

She taught modern languages for 23 years in various schools and has continued to make school visits as a writer of fiction for children and young adults.   

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gilljameswriter

Sample fiction: http://gillssamplesundays.blogspot.co.uk/

About the Schellberg Project http://www.thehouseonschellbergstreet.com/

Author blog: http://www.gilljameswriter.eu/  

What we’re offering

We’re each giving some things away. Ah! You’ll have to come along to find out what.

There will be quite a lot on offer. There will also be a tombola with a substantial prize from each of us. Everyone who joins us at any time will be put into the draw for the tombola.     

It’s going to be a hoot. Do join us! Register here.    

         

Deleted scenes

I’ve decided to keep some of these on my The House on Schellberg Street site. I see these as being a little like what you sometimes find on a DVD.  Here is one. Beneath it I attempt to explain why I deleted it.

A Misunderstanding 30 January 1939

 “You will be fine,” said John. “Absolutely fine. You’ll learn very quickly once you start school. Your uncle said you learnt Italian really quickly?”

“That was different,” wailed Renate. “We’d had lessons at school and then we only had to speak it to the skiing instructor. Tomorrow I’ve got to be able to understand everything in school.”

“And I’m giving you lessons,” said John. “It’s all around you all the time. The school is, thank God, anyway, exactly like the one you were going to go to in Stuttgart.”       

“Except that they all speak English,” muttered Renate.

“So we should practice now,” said John. “Come on, we shall speak English. Tell me everything you see!”

It was an unusually warm day for January. There were ducks and even swans bobbing along happily on the Thames. Renate could hardly believe that the trees and the birds and the bees were going on as normal – in fact better than normal – despite all the strange things that were happening to her. The sun made the water sparkle and you could see the reflections of all the tall buildings quite clearly on the water.

“Come on, then,” said John slowly in English. “What can you see?”

“Ich kann eine,” Renate started. She didn’t even know how to say “I can”.

“I can,” John said slowly for her.                        

 “Well, I can see a bridge, Tower Bridge,” said Renate carefully.“And Big Ben. Zhe-” She really did have trouble with “the”. She paused, took a deep breath, and placed her tongue firmly between her teeth. “The Houses of Parliament in London- the capital of - the United Kingdom.”

Mrs Smith nodded and smiled. She muttered something to John. He laughed.

“My mother thinks you sound like a tourist book,” he said.

 “What can you see on the river?” he asked, switching back to German. . 

“I can see some boots, and I can see a bugger,” replied Renate.

“What?” asked Mrs Smith.

A gentleman who was standing next to them cleared his throat and frowned at Renate.

“I can see a big bugger,” repeated Renate, looking sideways at the man, wondering why he seemed so hot and bothered.

“Well, really,” he muttered and hurried away.

“Bugger?” asked John. “Where did you learn that word?” he added in German.  You mustn’t say that. It’s a really bad swear word.”

“What have you been teaching her?” asked Mrs Smith.

“What do you mean?” asked John, ignoring Mrs Smith’s question.

“Look, bugger,” said Renate, pointing at the large craft which was slowly making its way upriver.

“Dredger,” said John. “That’s a dredger.” He laughed. “Of course. You’re trying to say the German word the English way,” he added in German.

“Oh, I’ll never get the hang of this stupid language,” moaned Renate, blushing bright red. “They’ll all laugh at me tomorrow.”

“They won’t laugh,” said John. He translated for his mother.

Mrs Smith gave her a huge hug. She said something which Renate could not understand, and shook her head violently. 

“They’re going to be nice,” said John in German. “But you’ve got to see the funny side of it. That man thought you were calling him a very rude word.”

He explained to Mrs Smith. She put her hand over her mouth and went very red. Then her eyes twinkled and suddenly she was laughing. 

 “Go on, laugh,” said John. 

Suddenly Renate found herself giggling helplessly at the thought of the gentleman’s face. And laughing made her feel better. Perhaps tomorrow would not be so bad after all.” 

Why did I get rid of this scene?

If I’m truthful, I can’t quite remember. Interestingly, on the fourth book in this series I am now doing the “kill off your darlings” edit and possibly here is a darling that needed killing. It is well enough written. This particular edit is normally one of the later ones so a lot of polishing has gone on beforehand.

There is another factor here. I was keen to have this scene in as it was partly a funny little true story. However, the conversation did not take place between John and Renate but between Renate and her mother.

The date is also wrong. She would have only been in England for a few days by 30 January 1939. Her English would probably not have improved that much yet. She spoke no English at all before she came to England. The actual conversation between Renate and her mother took place months if not years later.

So, it had to go.

I’m now wondering whether I could have included a more truthful scene at a more appropriate date. This might then have illustrated Renate’s growing unease about her identity.

The never-ending editor

It doesn’t ever stop, does it?  If I were writing this today I would probably use a different tag or no tag at all for:    

“That was different,” wailed Renate. “We’d had lessons at school and then we only had to speak it to the skiing instructor. Tomorrow I’ve got to be able to understand everything in school.”

You can read more deleted scenes here.   

   

Newsletter 5 March 2017

“Writing” a workshop  

I’m speeding ahead with getting material ready for my first school workshop on the Schellberg cycle. As I mentioned last time, I’m also developing the kit so that schools can work on it on their own. I‘m having most difficulty in deciding what to charge here. Any suggestions are very welcome. The kit includes:

·         Six board games

·         Thirty-six profile cards (for role play and letter-writing)

·         A short story and questions about it.

·         A series of letters and two sections of prose plus a chart for students to fill in

·         A series of topics for discussion

·         Notes for teachers, on all of the above sections, plus suggestions for creative outputs  

These resources are provided in soft copy and the schools may then duplicate them as much as they want to. Any teachers out there, what do you think I should charge?  

Bridge House

Bridge House’s anthology Baubles continues to sell. You can read a few extracts here. Salford Stories is out there also. Both could do with a few more reviews. If you’ve read them, do write a review for them. If you bought via Amazon, leave one there. You can also leave reviews on Good Reads or your own blog.  You may know of other places. I can also offer review copies for free (PDF or e-mobi) but of course we then don’t get the review on Amazon.  But everything helps and if you’d like a review copy, then reply to this email. If you do review or have reviewed, please also send me a copy.          

Our new annual anthology for 2107 will be Gliterary Tales. So, glittery stories that have a touch of literature about them. I wonder what that will add to the debate about the difference between literary and popular fictions? Debz Hobbs Wyatt has got the call for submissions out: read the guidelines here.  

Remember we’re also offering to publish single-author collections. These are for authors we’ve published before and they may include stories we’ve already published, ones they’ve had published elsewhere and new ones. The description for this is now on the web site. We’ve already had some enquiries. You may recycle stories we’ve already included in another anthology, and you may reedit these if you wish. You may also add in new stories. We’re aiming at a total word count of between 30,000 and 80,000 words. 

If you’re interested in this, contact me here.    

We’re being a bit cheeky and getting a little political. Are we are in danger of getting our books burnt? Well, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. We’re doing an extra anthology, Citizens of Nowhere, with the theme of the global citizen. Oh, I hope we don’t upset Ms May. We’re commissioning just over half of the work from known authors but there is room for a few open submissions. It’s now a question of whether your story is good enough. If it is, we’ll accept it straight away. The call for submissions ends once we’ve filled the collection.   Stories between 1,000 and 4,000 words. Submit to editor at bridgehousepublishing dot co dot uk. We’re currently about two thirds of the way there.    

CafeLit

Remember, we’re always open to submissions. Find out how here.  I’ve been encouraging my students to submit. I’m beginning to see some of their work appearing.

The Best of CaféLit 5 is available. There are some lovely stories in this. I’m very pleased that I have a story in this collection. Order your copy here.      

 

Again we need more reviews for this. Have you read them? Could you write us a review? And again, I’m offering free copies as PDFs or e-mobi files. Again, also send me a copy of the review.  

 

Chapeltown

We’re still looking for collections of Flash Fiction. CafeLit writers might particularly consider this as your stories so often fit this brief anyway. See our submissions page here. We have now signed up five writers already and I’ll be putting out one of my collections as well soon. Take a look here.  

Our first volume is out.  See it here.  Congratulations to Allison Symes Again, reviews, reviews please. Email me for free electronic copies.   

This call for submissions will be closing soon so hurry if you want to submit. 

Chapeltown is also excited to be publishing Colin Wyatt’s Who will be my friend? – a delightful picture book about friendship and accepting others. Yes, Colin is Debz’s dad. He is a Disney licensed illustrator and his latest publication is The Jet Set. We feel very honoured to be publishing him.

 

Creative Café

We’re always looking for new cafés.  If you visit one of the cafés in the project and would like to write a review of between 250 and 350 words – nice, too, to have a couple of pictures – send it to me here. Do the same if you find a new café.

I’m now going to send out a welcome letter to each new café that’s added. This will also offer them the opportunity to join the mailing list.  

I’m also now proactively encouraging cafes to stock The Best of CaféLit. Do you know anyone who might like to stock it? We can offer a 35% discount to retailers. Query gill at cafelit dot co dot uk.     

 

The Red Telephone

We are currently open for submissions. Hoorah! We’re looking for the next great YA novel. Check out the details here.  We’re particularly open to speculative fiction but we’ll also like anything that is well written and well-targeted.  I welcome others but send sample chapters and synopsis first. The full details are on the site.  

I am now working on Richard Bradburn’s Evernrood. We are still open for submissions but this will only be for a limited time now.    

Our mentoring programme is now full. I’ll update you from time to time on how that is going. 

I’d also like to mention now that I’ mentoring two of my former students also to help them get their novels up to publication standard. They won’t start this until they’ve finished their studies but it is something for them to keep them occupied as they wait for their results. I’m looking forward, too, to working with them.        

Book tours

If you’re a Bridge House / Red Telephone / CaféLit / Chapeltown author and you want to get serious about book tours, consider our author’s kit. We provide twenty books you take to the bookshop and the bookshop can put these through the till. We then invoice the bookshop, with a 35% discount for any sold and top up your supply to twenty. At the end of the tour you can either pay for the remaining books at cost + 10% or keep them until you’ve sold them and then pay the normal price of 75% of RRP. The latter can in any case be set against royalties. You need to allow at least ten days between events. Contact me here if you’re interested in this.           

 

School Visits

I’m proactively promoting my school visits associated with The House on Schellberg Street project. I’ve now developed a whole workshop for this. It starts off with a board game, includes some role play and creative writing and ends with a discussion.

Costs= travel expenses plus £400 for a full day and £200 for a half day. This includes all materials and some freebies. Two schools near to each other might consider splitting the day and halving the travel expenses and fees. This is open to negotiation in any case.       

  

I’m also continuously adding materials for schools to the site that are different from the ones I use for the workshops. I’ve recently added in a resources and books to do with the topic. See them here:       

Query for a school visit here.

I’m also happy to tailor a visit for your agreed donation. This can be for either a Schellberg Cycle visit or a creative writing workshop. Any monies raised this way will go specifically to a project I have for a non-fiction book about a journey that will follow the footsteps of Clara Lehrs. I’m hoping to do the whole journey by train, including departing via my nearest Metrolink station. It’s important to feel the rails beneath my feet.       

 I offer as well standard author visits which include readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises.

 

Books, short stories and other writings  

I continue to make good progress on Facing the Führer. (Yes, I’ve changed the name)  

Clara’s Story is being serialised. The cover makes this theme quite clear. The novel can now be found on Channillo. You may read it here.    

Clara’s Story is the second in the Schellberg circle. All five stories cover roughly the same period and are very much happening in and associated with Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. They can be read in any order. The stories overlap to some extent but where they repeat we see the happening form another point of view. For instance The House on Schellberg Street is mainly about a young girl, Renate, who comes to England on the Kindertranpsort. Clara’s Story is about her grandmother. Girl in a Smart Uniform explains how at least one German girl associated with the story became a Nazi – and then gave it all up. Facing the Führer is Renate’s mother’s version of events. In The Round Robin we learn about what happens to Renate’s friends.  

I’m also now turning The House on Schellberg Street into a play. I’ve been working on this during the odd minutes I get in the days when I’m working at the University of Salford. So far I’ve worked out which scenes I’ll use and I’m beginning to write out an outline for each. This is my first go at writing a play. I’m enjoying it.      

 

Upcoming events

On the 29^th March, 7.00 p.m. until 10 p.m. I’m running an online author event. I already have five authors and would like a sixth. Any volunteers? Contact me on gill dot james at btinternet dot com.    

Note for your diary: the London Bridge House / CafeLit / Chapeltown / Red Telephone celebration will be 2 December at the Princess of Wales again. People published 2017 will be invited first and then it will be open to all authors of our imprints. You are in case invited to bring one friend at the first call. Last year we “sold out” – the event is free but ticketed.  I’m planning a similar event in Manchester in the summer. Watch this space.           

 

Giveaway

This month I’m giving away an excerpt of Veiled Dreams. Download here: You will also find in this dropbox:

·         An extract from Clara’s story

·         Some seminars for schools about The House on Schellberg Street

·         Some fiction writing exercises

·         The opening chapters from my manual for writing the young adult novel     

Writing opportunities

Remember I keep a full list of vetted opportunities on my writing blog. See them here. New ones are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and take out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If you would like to be on that list, sign up here.    

Happy reading and writing.