News 13 October

 

Late this month – apologies

We’ve been away on our holidays this month so I’m a little behind with everything – except my reading challenge with Good Reads. I am now seven books ahead!  Yes, one of the main points of a holiday for me is to get more reading done – and I didn’t stint this time. You’ll read about which book came out top further on.  

 

Writing news

I’m continuing with my work on the seventh Schellberg book. My protagonist has just started to get into Swing and a club that she frequents has just been raided.  

 

On My Blog

 

I have just one post on my blog this time: Henry Mitchell talks to me about the publication of his book, Telling the Dark

 

The Young Person’s Library 

 

I added just one book in September.  I Never Thought I’d End up Here is a teen Rom Com /   Chicklet-lit book. It’s maybe a little fluffy but good fun anyway. 

 

Recommended read 

 

This month I choose The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan.  

Two engaging stories weave together and finally make sense of each other at the end.

It’s a story full of coincidences and improbabilities. There is even a ghost and a couple of love stories. There are mysteries aplenty too. Why was a biscuit tin containing someone’s ashes left on a train? Why is the ghost so angry? How will Laura ever be able to return all of the objects that her former boss found?

Yet it all works beautifully and makes for a very pleasant read.

Anthony Perdew, the original collector of the objects, was a short story writer and interwoven in the text are some of his stories about the objects - many of which actually come very close to the truth.

The characters are charming and in my view well-rounded and believable.

Ruth Hogan keeps you engaged as she outlines the tasks for The Keeper of Lost Things.  

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 The Big Book of Prompts 

 

There are three prompts a day for the whole of the year. Some are short and pithy, others are inspired by obscure days e.g. 8 January Bubble Bath Day, and some go into more detail on an aspect of writing craft. There are series that go over a number of days. A few prompts are about works in progress and several give you the choice of working with a text you have already created, creating something new or even editing a completed piece of work. But every prompt gives you the opportunity to write something as well.

These prompts were put together by writers published by the Bridge House, CaféLit and Chapeltown imprints, and their friends.

Happy writing!

 

 

Grab your copy  here.  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.

 

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.

 

 

    

 

 

 

 

Diana Powell tells us all about her writing

 

 

I’m Diana Powell, and I write short stories and novels. I love the short story genre – the variety found in its form, style and subject… how you can be writing about a man dancing with a flamingo, one minute; or a woman who sees Jesus in a tree, the next. Or is that just me?!

 

In the beginning, I think my desire to write came from my love of books, leading me to want to have one with my own words inside, with my name on the cover. In addition to this, I have always had a strong creative need, and it is writing that fulfils this. But I am also very interested in the workings of the mind and use my stories as a way of exploring some rather strange examples of what it is to be human.

 

For many years, I never called myself a writer. I would be a ‘housewife’, a ‘homemaker’, a part-time this and that, and would never tell people that I spent much of my time writing, or that I had won a short story competition or two. Then, soon after we moved to Pembrokeshire, I signed up on a Lifelong Learning ‘Write a Novel’ course, and the tutor, Helen Carey, said ‘But you ARE a writer.’ Her words, together with the fact that I won another competition soon afterwards gave me the self-belief to use that word.

 

I tend to write in the morning, as I’m a ‘morning person’. This is when I’m at my most creative, so I’ll try to leave editing, research, admin etc until later in the day. I write in our spare room – a well-lit room, which also houses a lot of books, including my own. Fortunately, from a writing point of view, at least, we don’t have many visitors!

I love research, I love choosing stories that require a lot of background investigation – to write about what I DON’T know! The flamingo story was about an eighteenth-century French ornithologist who built a Cabinet of Curiosities, so I needed to study the period and these amazing objects.  Sometimes, I lose myself in the research – there will be too many rabbit-holes to go down. So then, a moment might come, when I say ‘no more!’. ‘Just write the story!’.

I enjoy editing, and will work on several versions, before deciding the piece is right. I do edit as I go along, but also have entire re-writes, and usually end with reading my work aloud, to check the ‘sound’ of it. Even though I am adamant that I write for the page, I do like a story to flow well, and I am always very pleased when my work is described as ‘poetical’.

 

It seems to me that the stories I love often turn out to be the ones that do well in competitions, becoming the ones I’m most proud of. One of my stories won the 2022 Bristol Prize – chosen by Irenosen Okojie, out of over two thousand international entries. Another won the 2019 Chipping Norton Lit Prize and was then runner-up in the Society of Authors ALCS Tom-Gallon Award. It is an amazing feeling when top writers praise your work.

 I was also delighted to be commissioned to write about Pembrokeshire’s holy wells, for the Ancient Connections project, forging links between our area and Wexford.  I really enjoyed that, as it led me to explore parts of the county I hadn’t visited before.

 

For different reasons, I am also very proud of my longer works: ‘Esther Bligh’ because it was the first; ‘things found on the mountain’, because it was accepted for publication by one of Wales’s top presses; ‘The Sisters of Cynvael’, because it won the Cinnamon Press Literature Award, with publication by the press as its prize.

But something that always makes me proud and happy is when someone, a friend or a stranger,, tells me how much they loved my story or book. It’s always a very special moment.

 

I’ve just begun another story and another novel. My YA novel is due to be published in a month or so. I can’t imagine ever not writing. It’s part of me, of who I am. And although it can be hard – when one rejection follows another, or you can’t find the words you are sure are somewhere inside your head – I’ll keep on at it, because I love it!