An interview with Jim Bates

 Today on my blog I welcome Jim Bates. Jim is a frequent contributor to CafeLit 

We have recently published  his collections Resilience  and Short Stuff.  I count Jim as one of my good writing friends. 

So, Jim, what do you write? Why this in particular? 

I usually write literary fiction. I’m drawn to stories having to do with real life situations and how my characters choose to deal with those situations. That being said, I also enjoy writing poetry, haiku, drabbles, flash fiction, SF, fantasy and even horror. I guess what I’m saying is that I love to write!

What got you started on writing in the first place?

While helping to care for my aged mother in 2011, I realized that my goal of being a writer had been put on the back-burner for many years. Shortly thereafter I made the decision to start writing. It was one of the most memorable decisions of my life because I suddenly felt free and alive. I was off and running, and I’ve written nearly every day since then.

Do you have a particular routine? 

My routine is to rise early and be at my desk writing by 6:30 am. I’m retired to I can usually get two hours of writing in before other commitments take over. I love to garden so during the spring, summer and fall lots of time is taken up outdoors (which I enjoy to no end.) But I love winter because I can get a lot of writing done, maybe up to four hours a day.

Do you have a dedicated working space?

I have a small bedroom on the second floor where I do my writing. It faces east so I can see the sun rise. It’s really bright and cheery. However, when I’m working away, I’m hardly ever aware of the weather or even what’s going on around me. I’m pretty focused on the story or poem or whatever. I use a laptop so I can take it with me to work remotely if I have the chance.

When did you decide you could call yourself a writer? Do you do that in fact?

Gill, when you published my first book “Resilience” I finally was able to call myself a writer. I actually had business cards printed up with my website and email address on them. I referred to myself as Jim Bates – Author on those cards. It felt good. Still does! However, I needed to see the book in print before I felt I could do that. At the moment I held “Resilience” in my hands for the first time, I felt my dream of becoming a writer had finally come true. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for giving me that opportunity.

Our pleasure, Jim. How supportive are your friends and family? Do they understand what you're doing?

My family and friends are very supportive, especially my brother Tom whose lovely photo is on the cover of “Resilience”. My parents are both deceased but “Resilience” was dedicated to my mom, and my collection of short stories “Periodic Stories Volume Two” is dedicated to my dad. I think they both would have gotten a kick out of seeing me as a published author. I want to also give a shout out to the Facebook community of writers that I have met over the last three or four years. Their support has been invaluable. I dedicated “Short Stuff” my collection of flash fiction and drabbles to them.

What are you most proud of in your writing?

I am most proud of my stories. I told a friend recently that I don’t write to be published. I write to tell a good, heartfelt, emotional story. If I read what I have written and it makes me smile or makes me sad or connects with me emotionally in some way then I know I’ve done a good job. At least for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love to send my work out to see if others like it well enough to publish it or, at least, read it. It’s always a thrill to find people who like my work.  

How do you get on with editing and research?

Although I am occasionally asked to edit other writers work, editing my own work is always a challenge. Why? Because I am forever changing words, or sentences or what have you when I’m going through my own work. And I love to do that. But in order to be able to finally complete a story, I have to give myself a time frame to work under or I’d never be done! I should mention that I use editing software to catch typos and for grammar and that seems to help.

Do you have any goals for the future?

The short answer is yes, I want to keep writing for the rest of my life! LOL!! But, seriously, having made the commitment to start writing in 2011, I feel I am just now coming into my own, i.e. Finding my “voice” and coming up with fresh ideas. In the short term, I have writing projects mapped out for at least two years. I’d like to have more collections published. I’d like to do a collection of poetry. I’d like to write at least a couple more novels. I have a lot of ideas. I just need the time to get them all down. Oh, yeah. And a lot of coffee!!

Which writers have inspired you?

Henry David Thoreau for the brilliance of his mind and his ability to express himself. Mark Twain for his ability to tell a great story. And many contemporary authors like James Lee Burke, Anne Tyler, Tana French, Elizabeth Strout, William Kent Krueger and CJ Box and Paul Doiron all of whom not only telling great stories but bring to life their characters in amazing ways.

 

Now specifically about some of the work you’ve published with us. You write quite a lot for CafeLit. How did you find out about us and what inspired you to write the stories here?

As mentioned earlier, I started writing in 2011. That commitment ended up being a poem a day for four years. In 2015, I took an online class on short story writing and the final assignment was to write a 500-word story, something I’d never attempted before. The stories were arbitrarily sent out to the other students. My story was given to Kathy Sharp and I had hers. It was a chance meeting that changed my life for the better in ways I can’t begin to describe. Kathy and I began a correspondence. She became my mentor. She not only encouraged me to keep writing, but to start a blog and publish my stories on it. I did. She also gave me these words of advice: “Write from your heart, and write what you want to write. Publish your stories on your blog. In that way you will always be able to see the fruits of your labor.” And I started to doing that. In early 2018 both Kathy and Gail Aldwin encouraged me to send a story to CafeLit. I sent in “Remembrance Day”. When you selected it for publication in March, 2018, Gill, I was over the moon. Thank you so much!! It gave me confidence to continue on. I’ve sent stories to CafeLit every month since then. You have been the best supporter of my writing I could ever hope for. I’m eternally grateful to you for making my dream of becoming a writer come true.

 

What about Resilience? How did you come to write those stories?  Do they have an over-arcing theme?  

When I was given the opportunity to have a collection published by Bridge House Publishing, I went through my stories and listed my favorites. I came up with around sixty stories. I chose thirty-one of what I considered the best for “Resilience”. The theme of people being resilient is common to many of my stories. I am a firm believer in the power of the human spirit, i.e. The ability to make the most of a bad situation (something I learned from my mother.) So many of my stories deal with that. Also, just about every one of them had been published on CafeLit, so it was fun to revisit them.

 

Short Stuff, perhaps as the title suggests, is a collection of flash fiction. What is your relationship with flash fiction? 

In 2018, when my stories started appearing in CafeLit, I started looking at what other people were writing. In the beginning, in 2015, most of my stories were 10K – 15K words long. So, when I found out about drabbles and flash fiction, I was really intrigued. I began writing in that shorter format as a test to myself and found that I like it. I liked the brevity. I liked the challenge of telling a compelling story in a few words. It was a great learning experience. I sent a number of them out and had a fair degree of success. And I kept writing them. So, when the opportunity arose through Chapeltown Books to have a collection published, I jumped on it. I hope others have enjoyed those short pieces as much as I did writing them!

 

And so, what’s next? Are there any other works about to come out?

Right now, I am editing Volume Three of a collection of stories based on the periodic table of element. Volume One and Volume Two have been published through Impspired and so will Volume Three. However, in this collection, I’ve made the stories standalone yet blended them together through recurring characters into a 48K novel. I’m liking how it’s turning out. I will send the manuscript in no later than November 30 of this year. Also, I have a novel in the finals for the Open Contract Challenge through Dark Myth Publication. I’m fired up about it. It’s a fun story entitled “The Alien of Orchard Lake”. The winner should be announced by the end of November. Also, I have a collection of short stories that I will be submitting to Grant Hudson of Clarendon House on January 1, 2022. And I have a collection of horror related stories coming out in 2022 through Terror House Publications. I also have a novel entitled “A Ton of Light” that I’ve roughed out that I’d like to get started on. So…I’m staying busy!!

Thank you for this opportunity to be on your blog, Gill. Again, your support of not only me, but the writing community as a whole is amazing. Thank you so much.

 

Find Jim's books here:

 

Resilience 

Something Better

 Periodic Stories 

Periodic Stories 

Short Stuff 

 

 

Professional jealousy

We talked about this recently at a Society of Authors Manchester meeting. I’ve come across other people talking about it before.  I’ve certainly felt it and I’ve been on the receiving end of it. It is often worse when you know the successful writer personally.

Some examples

• A writer whose work you’ve edited tells you her latest novel has sold 100 copies in a few days
• An author you’ve mentored gets an agent and you’re as yet unagented
• A member of your critique group gets a book deal yet you know their work has quite a long way to go
• A colleague gets an award and you helped them to get there
• You come second in a competition that your writing friend wins.

 

What it does to you

It eats you up. You actually have to force yourself to congratulate the other writer. You feel inadequate.  You see yourself as an imposter. You may even feel like giving up.

 

Changing your mind-set

This may take some self-discipline but it is worth remembering:

·         No two creative practitioners will have the same journey.

·         Sure you have some rejections but remember your successes as well.

·         If they can do this it is possible for you as well.

·         You may ultimately be able to achieve even more than they have.

And remember to smile anyway – the act of smiling even when you don’t feel like it makes you feel like smiling. Offer your congratulations even if that is hard.

News 3 November 2021

 

Opening up and saving the planet

Shortly after I retired I found myself wondering how I’d ever had time to go to work. Then as the pandemic took hold, I wondered how I’d ever had time to go out anywhere. Many things started happening via Zoom and other similar platforms. You could join a meeting straight from your desk and work on something up until about five minutes before the meeting started. .

However I have started going out again and I hope in doing so I’m doing my bit about getting the economy moving again.

I worried a little at first about attending a Society of Authors Meeting that would involve about an hour and half traveling, or going to a Talking About My Generation news room meet up that would take half a day rather than half an afternoon.

I found it didn’t actually matter; you gain as much as you lose. There are some things that work better with a face to face meeting than when you’re communicating via a screen. The journeys can be interesting as well. There’s some good fodder for stories on a bus ride.

Yet the online meetings are still valid, particularly if there is a geographical challenge. Most of the groups I’m involved with are going for a half and half approach. I even ran my U3A Creative Writing group partly on Zoom.  It was a little odd in the social part just before the meeting got down to business. Those on Zoom chatted amongst themselves.  It was like having an extra group of little people in the room. However, once we started sharing work it all went smoothly. In any case we hold one hybrid meeting a month and one completely on Zoom.  

I’ve been out for one or two lunches and it’s clear the hospitality business is still suffering.  They are generally short of staff. Prices may have gone up a little as they try to make up for trade lost over the last eighteen months. Staff they’ve had to make redundant have now found work elsewhere.

There’s another balance to be brought in as well.  We must all do what little thigs we can to combat climate change. So, I’ve opted for public transport where possible. Most of the things on the list of the small changes people can make we do anyway. So, we’re also looking now at reducing our meat intake.

There is the danger that as we open up more after the Covid lockdowns we’ll go back to our old ways: emissions from cars, lots of paper and plastic waste from take-out lunches and more air travel. 

I hope we’ll continue to work with a hybrid pattern of on-line and face to face meetings.  Funnily enough they do just that in my Peace Child’s world.          

                  

 

Current writing

I’m now on the tenth draft of my fifth Peace Child novel, The Glastonbury Specification.   After edit nine I added a new chapter. This helped the Glastonbury specification gain a little more momentum. I think there is still more to be done however. 

My latest non-fiction work as well is finished and on its way out there.  I’m also putting together The Big Book of Prompts, which combines Prompts 2020, 2021 and 2022.   

I was pleased to appear on Hannah’s Bookshelf   on 9 October.  This is a great programme for readers and writers and goes out every Saturday afternoon on North Manchester FM . Well worth a listen. You can hear my interviews at:  https://www.mixcloud.com/Hannahs_Bookshelf/hannahs-bookshelf-with-special-guest-gill-james-09102021/  

I’ve had another story published with Reedsy. It’s described as Christian.  It sort of is and it isn’t. You’ll see what I mean if you read it. Find it here: https://blog.reedsy.com/short-story/5emxh5   Saving Gracie   

 

The Young Person’s Library

I’ve added one book this month:

Hide and Seek by Robin Scott-Elliot This is the story of a young Jewish girl living in Paris.  Her parents are taken away but she hides in her mother’s wardrobe. She eventually works for  the resistance and also helps to save some Jewish orphans.  A pleasing Teen / YA read.   

 

Current reading recommendation

I’ve gone back to one of the masters this month: Charles Dickens. In fact, the great work I read took most of the month. I’ve made my way through his Sketches.

It’s a long read but the title is so apt. It’s a collection of sketches of and anecdotes about people and places.  Dickens was so ahead of his time. Monty Python didn’t really bring us anything new.  And although he satirises the behaviour of people there is also respect and fondness.

He apologises at the beginning of the book.  He was very young and an inexperienced writer when he created these works. Fine.  We can see here his writers’ craft growing.

The collection also acts as time machine for a 21^st century reader; we are transported to a London, an England and a society very different from the ones we know now.           

Get 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 short story collection: Girl in a Smart Uniform

Gisela yearns to belong. Yet life conspires against her.

At first Gisela is delighted to be a member of the BDM. She struggles as she has to care for her disabled half-brother, she firms a taboo relationship with another girl and also loses her father and her precious brother, Bear.

Girl in a Smart Uniform is the third story in my Schellberg Cycle which includes themes of identity, the Holocaust and World War II.                  

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 three posts this month.

Shortages – then and now compares what we’re experiencing now with what happened in the 1940s. Maybe we shouldn’t grumble?

Racism and Anti-Semitism looks at some of the root causes of racism and anti-Semitism.

I have also added here information about Hide and Seek by Robin Scott-Elliot,  also discusses above, as it gives insights  into the Resistance     

 

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.