News 3 June

 

There’s a lot going on at the moment. It’s alarming that we’re going to be building more weapons and that we’re putting money into the military. Some Heads of State are behaving very badly. We’re all concerned about climate change and the cost of living seems impossible for many. The number of homeless and of those seeking asylum is worrying. We seem to be making a U-turn on our acceptance of otherness.
One of the members of my creative writing group told us how she won’t watch the news. She can’t bear it because she feels useless.
True it’s not obvious what we might do. Yet there is space for kindness, the mindfulness of living each moment as it comes and we can use our writing to bring a message of hope or an analysis of what’s happening.   

Writing news

I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. The Great War is putting in an appearance and I’m thinking about taking a trip to Munich for a little research.     

I have several publications this month:

My story ‘White Christmas Dreams’ appears on Booksie

I have a review of the Whitefield Garrick’s Pygmalion on Talking About My Generation

My piece of creative non-fiction ‘Sleuthing’ appears on Lit-Break.This is a reflection of the time I used to travel to London regularly to take part in a SCBWI critique group.   

On My Blog

You can read my short story ‘Film Noir’ that appears in The Best of CafeLit 7.

I have also written two articles about my involvement with CaféLit 12 : and  CafeLit 13

There is an offer on the two hard back books that commemorate Covid 19 and the lockdowns. These are good souvenirs of a bit of history we’ve lived through. 

I have an interview with Rosemary Banfield and Sam Banfield-Keller about their lovely new picture book Are You an Alien?

I tell you about how the first book in my Peace Child series came about and how that fitted with my PhD:

My article about point of view discusses how to avoid head-hopping and the work of Monika Feth,

The Young Person’s Library

I’ve added three picture books this month:  

Splat  by Vanessa Horn and Georgia Przygocki

Coorie Doon by Jackie Kay and Jill Calder

Are You an Alien? By Sam Banfield-Keller and Rosemary Banfield

Recommended read

This month I choose Trustee from the Toolroom by Nevil Shute

It is my book group’s choice for our meeting on 16 June. It is a modern classic.  

The writing seems very smooth compared with many modern stories. The main character is so very well formed that we like him and we wish him well right to the very end.
Keith Stewart and his wife are very down-to-earth and though not poor they are certainly not as well off as Stewart’s sister and brother-in-law. His sister and brother-in-law are drowned as they cross the world in a small yacht and he becomes the guardian of his young niece Janice.

There are some very powerful descriptions of the sea voyage and though there are many technical details that go right over my head, I don’t feel as if the author is showing off.  These details are important to the two characters in the boat.

The same is true of the engineering detail that we are given as Keith discusses and thinks about his small scale model projects. Again I don’t understand those details but it’s clear they are important to Keith and to the men to whom he talks.

Keith goes on tricky journey to recover some items from the yacht and to make sure his relations have had a decent burial and this creates much of the tension in the story. We are kept guessing right until the last minute about whether it will all come good for the family.
Keith does get some help through the kindness of strangers, which is richly deserved, and that is a reassuring message.              

Find your copy here 

 

Note, this is an affiliate link and a small portion of what you pay, at no extra cost to you,  may go to Bridge House Publishing.   

Giveaway  

This month I’m giving away a copy of Clara’s Story
Clara will not be daunted. Her life will not end when her beloved husband dies too young.  She will become a second mother to the young children who live away from home in order to visit a rather special school. When life becomes desperate for a particular class of disabled children growing up in Nazi Germany she takes a few risks. Is her ultimate faith in the goodness of human beings a fatal flaw that leads to her tragedy, or is her story actually one of hope?
RRP £10.00
 
Sign up to our newsletter and download your copy. 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. 

 

I have written a review of One Child’s War by Audrey Curtain : This is an account of on young girl’s experience of being evacuated and of the London Blitz.

I offer a caution about over-romanticising World War II and the 1940s: The 1940s Trope

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.
 
 

More about me and CafeLit

 

The Best of CaféLit 9 was one of those books where we asked those who had been in the previous volume to vote for this year’s  stories  They were to pick five and give five points to the best, four to the second best etc. We totted up all of the points and found a rank order.  We published the top 40,000 words. The stories were published in rank order in the book.

Okay, so my two stories ‘The Yellow Bus’ and ‘Three’s a Crowd’ were the last two to be included. Never mind. They got there.

‘The Yellow Bus’ is based on a true story. I always say, anyway, that bus journeys provide writers with tons of ideas.

‘Three’s a Crowd’ was based on a writing prompt.

I write short stories as a way of punctuating my involvement with my novel writing.  Every time I finish an edit I write a short story or something similar. I go to Fair Submissions and try to write something for whatever is on the landing page. I enjoy the discipline of writing to a brief.  However, that doesn’t mean that the story hasn’t come from something I met on one of my travels – perhaps on a yellow bus.

How did these two stories end up in CaféLit?

I submit something every day somewhere. I keep a spreadsheet of what has gone where and what is available to submit. CaféLit comes to the top of the list every now and then.

I never give up on a piece, but I do reedit before I send it out again.

Recently, I had a piece of flash creative non-fiction accepted that had been out eleven times before.

By the way, we use a different method each year for selecting which stories go into The Best of  books. 14 and 15 are chosen by different editors. 16 will be by yours truly.  Who knows what we’ll do for 17? 

Find your copy here             

My involvement with 'The Best of CafeLit 12'

 

I often interview other people about their contributions to our anthologies so this time I thought I’d talk about my stories in this collection. 

What inspired me to write my stories ‘’Doing the Right Thing’ and ‘Socrates’ Wink’?

We all try to ‘do the right thing’ but I worry that some ‘cures’ might be worse than the disease. Remember, we started using single use plastic bags to save paper. We’re asked to recycle but to wash out our recyclable items first. What does that cost in water and energy? Electric cars, sure, but what is the carbon cost of producing them? I’ve tried to crystallize these ideas into a piece of creative non-fiction.

As for Socrates – he’s fascinated me for a long time especially since I attended a couple of U3A philosophy groups particularly during lockdown where I think we all grabbed at straws.  Except that this seems to be a rather sturdy branch. In this story Father and son unwittingly use Socratic discourse techniques to find some common ground. Father is a fan of Socrates.       

What made me think of CaféLit? 

It was partly about creating a platform where some of my writing friends and the creative writing students I used to teach could send work. The stories we accept are diverse in subject matters, length (with the parameters of 50 – 3000 words) and style, so we need something to unify them. So, we look for tales that would go well with a brew, particularly at 4 pm. We’ve been going quite a while now – since 2010 in fact. We have over 3000 stories on the site. We ask writers to allow us to display the stories for a year but only take them down if they ask us to.  We’ve only ever been asked to take two down.      

 What’s special about short stories for me?

A short story or piece of flash fiction will stay for you a long time after you’ve read it. Of course the same is true of a novel but it takes you longer to read it in the first place. So, the effect of the short story or the piece of flash fiction is stronger. Here’s an example. The novel I wrote for my PhD was over 103,000 words. When Mary Hoffman put out a call for stories for the Lines in the Sand anthology I told the same story in 1000 words. All have their place: novels, novellas, short stories and flash fiction.   

 

Find your copy of The Best of  CafeLit 12  here   

How to Avoid Head-Hopping

 

 

First person and close third person narratives are in favour at the moment.  This is possibly because these two narrative voices hold us very close to the characters in a story and that is what the modern reader enjoys.

I’m a fan of Charles Dickens. He was a great story-teller. But he was an omniscient author who could look down into all of the characters’ minds. We crave a greater closeness now.

I’m also a great admirer of Monika Feth, the German writer who has created a series of thrillers for young adults. We always know who ‘did it’ and the tension comes from wondering whether the victim will escape the criminal. In a novel I read recently, Der Libellenflüsterer, (the dragonfly whisperer)  we enjoy the point of view of the protagonist, her mother’s, the victim’s,  the perpetrator’s, his wife’s, his little girl’s, and that of a social worker who is murdered.  But Feth doesn’t head-hop. She stays with each character throughout a scene.

How does she achieve this?

She uses the senses

She tells us what the characters see, hear, taste, smell and feel

She doesn’t tag thoughts

Instead of saying ‘Merle wondered whether he would find her’ she just goes straight to the thought. ‘Would he be able to find her? Could she get out without him hearing?’

She gives each character a distinct personality

Each character acts, thinks and speaks in as particular way. We should be able to open the book at any page and know which character we’re reading about.  

Each scene is only seen by one character

Yes, we might see the same scene several times through different characters’ eyes but we only see them one at a time. The daughter has one perception of what her father is doing; her mother has another.

Each scene is consistent with how it character sees the world

Feth can do this because she knows her characters well.  She knows about their intellectual capability, their physical abilities and limitations and their emotional circumstances.

 

Feth is the master of having multiple viewpoints without ever head-hopping.  She writes very long books in series of small scenes.  It really works.

‘The Prophecy’ - something new for me at the time

The Prophecy is science fiction and it is a Young Adult novel. It is the first book in the Peace Child series and it was a first in many ways for me when I wrote it. It was the first time I’d written science fiction, it was the first time I’d written for young adults and it was the first time I’d written a novel over about 29,000 words.

In fact, if formed part of my PhD thesis, Peace Child, Towards a Global Definition of the Young Adult Novel.

I had a writing routine back then (2003-2007) that involved writing for two hours a day and producing 2000 words. I also read avidly and devoured as many young adult novels as I could find: ones in other languages, form other English-speaking countries and anything that was labelled ‘young adult’ by publishers, book-sellers, teachers, librarians and young adults themselves. I sought to define what the young adult novel was and shape my novel accordingly.

It soon became apparent that it wasn’t a matter of writing the story and then working on the definition.  The two processes had to go hand in hand.

I won’t give you my definition here - why would I deprive you of the pleasure of reading the thesis? Find out all about it here: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/peace-child-towards-a-global-definition-of-the-young-adult-novel. I can however tell you I identified seven characteristics.

There was an explosion in YA literature between 1996 and 2005. Back then I was familiar with pretty well every YA text. Now there are far too many of them to keep track and the YA novel has moved on.

The story itself is a about a Peace Child, a sort of super-charged diplomat who seeks to bring people on opposite sides together.  Oh, I wish we had a few of those around now. Kaleem’s world is in a distant future, where we have colonised other planets and found other life in the universe, But as ever in science fiction we encounter the same problems that challenge us in our own world.

I spent many months before I started writing the story creating Kaleem’s world.  I thought about food, clothing, schooling, religion, finance and many other matters.  When I started writing more questions came up. I find this happens too in fantasy and historical fiction.   With the latter you have to go and find out - for example for one book I needed to know which cut flowers would be available in the autumn in 1941. In fantasy and science fiction you have to use your imagination – but in fact you are still writing what you know.

Is science fiction and science fantasy for young adults the equivalent of the glove puppet and  anthropomorphised animals for very young children? I suspect it is.

I have now completed six stories in the Peace Child series. I shall be starting the seventh and final one shortly.    

This first novel shows how the Peace Child, Kaleem Malkendy, fulfils a prophecy and saves his planet. In the process he finds out a lot about his own identity. He has to learn to understand otherness. In subsequent books he faces other issues but there is always the need to find a third way between opposing entities. In books five and six he hands over the batten to the next Peace Child and in book seven we shall meet her successor.

The prophecy? It is something to do with the Tower of Babel. Kaleem is a super linguist. Is the prophecy accurate? In a later book some explanation is offered as to how it came about … and yet we are left wondering. Here’s a hint for you:  one characteristic of the young adult novel is that it allows the reader to make up their own mind about what is really happening. I think The Prophecy does.              

 

Kaleem Malkendy is different – and on Terrestra, different is no way to be.
Everything about Kaleem marks him out form 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 you copy here

Rosemary Banfield and Sam Banfield-Keller : Are you an Alien?

Today I chat to the wonderful Sam Banfield-Keller and Rosemary Banfield who have together written this lovely picture book.

 

It is a really great for us to have a writer and illustrator, mom and daughter at that,  already working together as a team. Have you completed many similar projects together?

SK: It was a real privilege for us to work as a team on Are You an Alien? and thanks so much to you and Chapeltown for getting us to this point. Are You An Alien? is the first of three manuscripts I wrote when my children were little and I was still reading bedtime stories to them. My mom and I have already begun outlining the next story, which is about a lonely chameleon looking for someone special to call his own.

RB: Are You an Alien? is our first completed project and first published book together, but we have a couple of other ideas in development that we hope to see through to publication in the future. Sam has written a number of children’s stories, which we intend to collaborate on, and my hope is to complete the illustrations for the next book by the end of this year. Our goal is to keep working together, and by the way, it is a privilege for me to be able to work with Sam on these projects.

 

Can you tell us a little about how you worked together on this project?

RB: Although we’re originally from South Africa, Sam and I now live in different states in New England, USA —Sam’s in Connecticut and I’m in Massachusetts. There is a two-and-a-half hour drive between us, so most of our work is done by phone, FaceTime, or Zoom, and whenever we can get together in person. I think we are very fortunate, most of the time, to be on the same page. We have the same sense of humour and often come up with similar solutions to any problems that arise. Sam is a competent illustrator herself, however, as a busy writer, novelist, and creative writing teacher, she has little time to take on the work of illustrating her own children’s stories. She generously shares her ideas with me and I do the same with her and we seldom disagree. When we do disagree we manage to sort it out quite amicably.

SK: I wrote the manuscript and laid out the original storyboard for Are You An Alien? and made a couple of attempts to visualize Makhosi and how she would move around her world and on the page. Mom and I then took the storyboard and worked together on bringing the story to life. Once the illustrations begin, it becomes a very collaborative process, as the pictures tell so much of the story, which you don’t need or want to repeat in the script. So the manuscript begins to change and the pictures fill in the gaps, and by then the work is a true collaboration. Mom also brings so much humor and fun to her illustrations, with the inclusion of little, unexpected details. Most fun for me was how she hid the alien in plain sight on each page. I love the way she’s shown him attempting to roll himself up like the pangolin.

 

What did you enjoy most about producing this book? 

RB: Everything! The whole project. From Sam’s initial invitation to take on this project with her and the early months where I spent many hours working on numerous sketches and drawings to establish the illustration style we wanted for our book. Then, working to create the ideal look for little Makhosi. At first she looked too old for our little heroine and then, too young, until eventually—like in the Goldilocks fairytale—she turned out “just right”! I loved having this opportunity to work with my daughter, doing something I’ve always loved. Although I’ve illustrated two other books for children, this was the dream—our first submission as mother and daughter.

Later, when we connected with Gill and Martin at Chapeltown, it became real for us to imagine our work being published. Both Gill and Martin made this journey very easy, their communication was always precise and clear and timeous. Martin’s advice was so useful and his sense of humour kept us entertained! We learned a lot and are grateful for the guidance. Sam and I could not be happier with the final product of Are You an Alien?

SK: It’s hard not to celebrate every aspect of this experience. Thanks to Mom being an artist, creativity was always encouraged in our home. We had baskets of art supplies, paints and paper available, and books in every room. Me wanting to be a writer was always encouraged and so this is sincerely the realization of a lifelong intention for both of us. My mom has illustrated children’s books before and I always wanted to write them and working together to bring Makhosi’s story to life has been a lot of fun.

 

What if anything has been the most difficult about this project?

SK: The only thing for me was the frustration at my limited digital production skills. Fortunately my son, Thomas, is a media production student and knows a lot about the things I don’t. He was able to help us reformat and clean up the images, even putting together our first dummy book. A true family affair! Apart from that small and solvable annoyance, to be honest we have been fortunate not to come up against any insurmountable difficulties with the production of the book. We often said during the process that it would have been easier if we lived closer to one another. We’d have been able to work more collaboratively on the creation of the illustrations and how they worked with the manuscript, and we did miss not being able to have more in-person time together. 

RB: However, this is a complaint we have in real life anyway. Always wishing we lived close enough to meet for a cup of coffee every day! 

 

Can you both tell us about your work routines?

RB: As I work from home, my work routine in normal circumstances is to be at my desk by 9.00am and work until about 3.00pm. The time spent drawing and painting and researching the habits, habitats, and quirks of the creatures I’m drawing, is interspersed with several coffee breaks, chats with my husband Mike—who also works from home—and taking moments to cuddle with our reluctant cat, Oliver, who shares my space but does not like to be disturbed. I’m also fortunate to be able to work on weekends if there’s nothing else going on. 

SK: I also work from home—unless I’m teaching—and meet with my editing clients via Zoom, and with writing colleagues at the local library. (I’d like to offer a quick shout out in support of the amazing work libraries do in our communities!) Creative work is often deprioritized when there is paid work to do, so I try to be disciplined about keeping my mornings for my writing. I meet editing clients and work on any paid projects, marketing, website maintenance, etc. in the afternoons. I find if I don’t prioritize the creative work, it gets absorbed into the other demands of life, so this time has become a non-negotiable for me. 

And do you have a dedicated space for your work? 

RB: I have a dedicated space, working at a table which I find is never big enough. I wonder if there is an artist alive who ever has enough space? I often use part of the kitchen counter when I’m working on large pieces of paper and I need enough room to accommodate my paints, brushes, pencils, etc. It can often be hazardous working like this, as the sink is rather too close for comfort and the risk of getting water splashes on my paintings are almost inevitable. 

 

I need a DO NOT DISTURB sign more than Oliver thinks he does.

 

On top of the immediate work surfaces, I have different portfolios for each project I’m working on, drawers and shelves for copious quantities of art supplies, tools and paint palettes and the never ending, growing numbers of books. All absolutely essential of course!

SK: I have a dedicated office, where I work when I’m at home and on Zoom calls. We recently moved house so I don’t feel completely organized or settled in the room yet and, no matter where I work, I always seem to need more space for my ever-expanding book collection. My desk looks out onto a row of Linden trees, which are currently in their full spring greenery, and the house is very quiet as both my children are away at university now. I do have to share my space with Pickle, our cat, who insists on perching on the back of my chair or settling on my lap while I work. I have a dog too, called Puzzle, who has a dedicated cushion in the room. His gentle snoring is the soundtrack to my work days.

 

Do you have any events planned? We’re happy to advertise them here.

SK: We don’t have anything planned yet, apart from some family and friend events to celebrate the book’s publication. We have been reaching out to local libraries and bookstores and are hopeful we can arrange something soon.

RB: I have sent emails out to groups of people, family, friends, colleagues, and fellow artists, and am planning a Mother’s Day promotion with Sam on Instagram. We have approached the local libraries in our respective states and also bookshops, introducing Are You an Alien?, and have received a few offers of discussions towards arranging events, soon to be confirmed. 

 

Do you have any more collaboration planned?

RB: Yes, I’m happy to say, Sam and I have other collaborations planned for the near future and the next one is currently in the wings. It is another wonderful Sam Banfield-Keller children’s story, illustrated by her mum! It’s about a lonely little chameleon looking for a friend, and along similar lines to Are You an Alien?, includes a cast of colorful creatures.

SK: Apart from the chameleon story, which is titled Tongue-Tied, we are working on the manuscript for a longer piece called Sweet & Sour. This will be aimed at early readers and is about a grumpy, friendless cobbler who is brought out of his shell by a kind baker, who opens a sweet shop next door to the cobbler’s shoe shop. We’re inspired to get back to the literal drawing board and work on expressing the characters for both stories.

 

Or indeed any individual projects?

RB: I have a good friend who has recently finished writing a children's story. It’s her debut effort and she has approached me to illustrate her story, which is an exciting prospect for us both. 

SK: I have a literary fiction novel, called The Light Remains being published in South Africa and North America later this year. I’m currently working on my second novel, which I’m hoping to finish in the next few months, and have a third, which was written in collaboration with two other writers, out for submission at the moment.

 

Thank you so much for answering these questions. This has been a really interesting interview. 

 

You can find  find a copy of  Are You an Alien? here.   

See how the project developed here: