SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: DAISY TATE ON GAL PALS

I’m over the moon to invite the wonderful Daisy Tate to the blog today. I met Daisy at a conference a couple of years ago and have reached out to her many times for the huge amount of wisdom she carries. From worries about contracts to the far more personal she is never anything but supportive, perceptive and insightful. Daisy, you’re a queen. 

 

Hello and thank you so much for letting me thumb a proverbial ride with the Sister Scribes.

The sun is sort of shining, the cows are out to pasture, and I’m counting myself a lucky bean as in a couple of week’s time my first book is coming out and let me just say…this baby wouldn’t have seen the light of day if it weren’t for my gal pals.

Happy Glampers is a four parter about four women (there’s a theme here) who were roomies in uni, lost touch, and are now rekindling their friendships en plein air. You can indulge in little one quarter reads or go mad and read the whole thing as they’re releasing all of them in a oner. One of the best parts about writing it was staring up at my corkboard where I pinned pictures of friends who are constant reminders of just how special female friendships can be. I was never a clique girl. Terrified of them in fact. Terrified because I was afraid of being kicked out for being the kooky, lone wolfish, drama nerd that I was. But now that I am a (vaguely) grown up woman, I am finally beginning to realise just how important the risk taking is. Is it scary to let someone close? Always. Are the rewards of a tight friendship incalculable? Absolutely.

Firstly, a good friend will tell you if there is spinach in your teeth. And a whole lot more. Like reading the early drafts of your novel for instance. I cringe to think of how awful my book was in the beginning (sheer genius, obviously glinting through, but…there was a lot of dreck to chisel away). None of that shiny polished prose would’ve seen the light of day if it hadn’t been for my gal pals who read this book over and over until it was finally deemed ready for the general public. Trusting that you’re going to get honest feedback is a huge thing. Trusting that your friendship can survive  constructive criticism is also a rather stupendous experience.

Being invited to appear with the Sisters Scribe-tastic is a testament to just how supportive women writers are. When I first entered the magical world of writing a few years ago I was prepared to get my very short nails out and, well, not claw my way to the top because I have zero upper body strength – but at least fend off any scary foes. THERE ARE NO FOES in the world of women’s fiction. (Please let this not be the moment where I unearth a mortal enemy). Along this windy path I’ve walked, I have only met people who are there to help others (like Kitty Wilson!). All of which is a hugely long-winded way of saying if you think you’re in this journey alone? You don’t have to be. You’ve got a host of friends – ready and willing to stand up by, beside and for you. So go for it.

 

 

Daisy Tate loves telling stories. Telling them in books is even better. When not writing, she raises stripey, Scottish cows, performs in Amateur Dramatics, pretends her life is a musical and bakes cakes that will never win her a place on a television show. She was born in the USA but has never met Bruce Springsteen. She now calls East Sussex home.

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/DaisyTatetastic

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/daisy.tate.92167

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

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18660359.Daisy_Tate

SISTER SCRIBES: JANE CABLE ON BOOK BIRTHDAYS

My latest book, Another You, was published at the end of last month. Actually, it was re-issued, but the experience was so different this time, it’s hardly felt as though it was ever out there before.

With its previous publisher, it slipped into the world unnoticed. I was given no prior warning then suddenly, there it was on Amazon. For a few days I told no-one, then somebody noticed and the cat was out of the bag. The week before Christmas. Not great timing for what is essentially a summer book.

Of course I had a certain trepidation signing with another publisher after that, but I could already see from the outside looking in that things would be different with Sapere. There was proper editing, for a start, and although the story is the same it is tighter, neater, with their input. And although last time the cover was good, this time it is knockout. When I saw the image of the soldier walking away, head bent, I cried. Because whoever had briefed the designer totally got the story.

Next there was a decent pre-order period with a boost of advertising and a mailer to kick it off. The result was it rocketed up the Amazon charts and although things have calmed down a little now I know the book is selling. And its presence on Netgalley has been skilfully used to generate reviews from trusted readers, which has not only raised Another You’s profile but has also given me a rich vein of content for social media.

With the pre-orders having gone so well I didn’t expect too much from publication day itself, but I was knocked out by the support I received on social media, especially from members of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. They are a generous hearted bunch and I seemed to spend much of the day saying thank you, which was only right. There was considerable support from my buddies at Chindi Authors too.

The day before some lovely flowers had arrived from my Sister Scribes and they were looking glorious in their vase in the sunshine. There was also a parcel, which contained a gorgeous embroidered notebook and pencil case, in colours that toned beautifully with my book cover. Next an email popped into my inbox with a voucher for a spa day at the marvellous Scarlet on my beloved north Cornwall coast. To say I was overwhelmed is a bit of an understatement.

The day became even stranger, when no doubt prompted by all this activity my husband downloaded the book. To put this into context, he has never before read anything I’ve written outside the world of cricket journalism. To be fair, he’d been talking about downloading Another You for a while, but there wasn’t any point if he had no intention of reading it. This time, he says he will, but I have to say I’ve seen no moves to do so yet.

Then, just when I thought all the fuss was over, the doorbell rang again and a bottle of champagne turned up – again, courtesy of my Sister Scribes. These amazing, amazing, women. I am truly humbled to have them as my friends.

The point is – they get it. They’re writers too, so they know how publication day should feel. They know it should be special enough to mark the fruition of what is months, and sometimes years, of work. Every book needs a proper birthday, and this is one I will never forget.

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: ALISON KNIGHT & JENNY KANE ON CREATIVE CONFIDENCE

I’m so pleased to be able to welcome two fabulous writers to Frost today.  Alison and Jenny have come on to tell us all about their latest venture  Imagine, a creative writing business that encourages new writers to have confidence in their work. With a huge (and I mean huge) breadth of experience and wisdom, they are two of the nicest women you could ever hope to meet. 

 

Writing is a solitary occupation so it’s good to have a permanent cheerleader to help you through the bad days and celebrate the good days (and friends and relatives don’t count because they tell you what you want to hear). We’re really lucky because when we met at a Romantic Novelists’ Association meeting, we hit it off immediately and have since become business partners.

Imagine Creative Writing Workshops was born amid much laughter and copious quantities of mint tea and black coffee. For the past two years we’ve been teaching courses and workshops in Wiltshire, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, Wales and London and have gathered together over one hundred regular students aged from six to one hundred and four!

Our aim is not just to teach people to write but to give them the confidence to write. So many talented people don’t follow their dream of being a writer just because they lack confidence. For us, there’s a certain magical quality in seeing our students develop their skills and produce work they can be proud of. It’s a privilege to be able to watch new writers go from their first writing exercise to completing the first draft of their novel.

The highlight of our year is our residential writing retreat every October at the splendid Northmoor House, a Victorian manor with lots of original features on the edge of Exmoor. There, everyone has the time and space to write with our support and the camaraderie of other writers as well as excellent food and visiting guest speakers.

Between the two of us we write nine different genres, including historical crime, contemporary fiction, YA adventures, family drama and romance. To avoid confusion (or is it to confuse ourselves?) we use five different pen names! We like to think that our broad range helps us to help our students.

When it comes to our own writing it’s nice to be able to depend upon each other for honest opinions, beta reading, and a firm kick up the backside as and when is necessary. We haven’t come to blows yet and are looking forward to the continuing Imagine adventure.

 

Alison’s Bio

I’ve always enjoyed writing and in my forties decided I wanted to learn more about the craft. I studied at Bath Spa University and Oxford Brookes University, achieving a first class degree and an MA in Creative Writing. I’ve been teaching for four years now and have had three books published – two contemporary romances and a YA time-travel adventure. I’ve two further books completed – a second YA book and a family drama set in 1960s London – and I’m currently working on more contemporary romances. I also work as a freelance editor. I live in Somerset, within sight of Glastonbury Tor.

Jenny’s Bio
Lucky enough to be a Costa writer in residence, I spend my days in Devon within easy reach of coffee, writing contemporary fiction, romance, and children’s picture books. I also write medieval mystery novels and audio scripts for ITV as Jennifer Ash. Occasionally I masquerade as award winning erotica writer, Kay Jaybee. Over the past 14 years I’ve accumulated over 200 publications, including 21 novels. I’m published by Accent Press, LittwitzPress, Mammoth, Penguin, and Spiteful Puppet.

Imagine: www.imaginecreativewriting.co.uk

 

 

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: MAY – CRIME, CONTRACTS, ASSISTANCE

May saw Caoimhe and I head off to represent Sapere Books at our first ever CrimeFest in Bristol. Two of our lovely authors were speaking on panels; newly-appointed Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, Linda Stratmann, and co-founder of Crime Cymru, Alis Hawkins. The Friday evening saw the announcement of the longlist for the first ever Sapere Books Historical Dagger Award. I can’t wait to get stuck into them all! You can see the longlists for all of the CWA Daggers here: https://thecwa.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/CWA-Dagger-2019-Longlists-3.pdf

May saw the release of eight of our books: four books in Cora Harrison’s Victorian London Mystery series; Linda Stratmann’s latest mystery, THE GHOST OF HOLLOW HOUSE; the first in John Matthew’s historical thrillers, LETTERS FROM A MURDERER; the third Inspector Lintott mystery by Jean Stubbs, THE GOLDEN CRUCIBLE; and the penultimate cosy crime novel from Elizabeth Lemarchand, WHO GOES HOME?

We also signed two new authors to our family. We’ve contracted Sean Gibbons for a three-book deal of a series of crime books set in Galway City. We also signed a four-book detail with Natalie Kleinmann for her Regency romance novels.

And we can finally reveal our new Editorial Assistant! Natalie Linh Bolderston will be joining us from June 10th, and we can’t wait! We have lots of books in various stages of production, so she won’t be short of work – but we’ll try not to scare her off! Hopefully I can persuade her to check in with next month’s blogpost to let you know how she’s getting on!

 

Amy Durant

Follow Natalie on Twitter @NatBolderston

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: APRIL – AWARDS, AGENTS, SERIES

We have been very busy at Sapere Books in March and April. At the beginning of March, Catherine Isaacs was announced as the winner of the Romantic Novelists’ Association Popular Fiction Award, which we sponsored, for her absolutely brilliant novel, YOU ME EVERYTHING. We were thrilled to be involved with the award and we have agreed to sponsor it for at least two more years.

A week later we were at London Book Fair, catching up with all of the literary agents we currently work with and meeting with plenty of new ones to discuss what we are looking for. I can’t reveal the outcomes just yet, but we mentioned that we were looking for nautical fiction to one agent and she told us she has an author who has planned a 20-book series of naval thrillers! She is currently discussing the offer with the author, so fingers crossed we will be announcing our first nautical fiction writer very soon!

March saw the release of Alexandra Walsh’s debut thriller, THE CATHERINE HOWARD CONSPIRACY, which has been racing up the charts, as well as the fourth book in Graham Brack’s Josef Slonsky series – FIELD OF DEATH – which readers have completely fallen in love with. April also saw the release of new titles in two more of our most popular series: The Lady Fan Mysteries by Elizabeth Bailey and The Charles Dickens Investigations Series by J C Briggs.

We are preparing lots of fantastic titles for release over the summer, and we have realised that we do not have as many contemporary romantic fiction titles as we do crime and thriller, so we are about to start scouting for romance authors who are writing heart-warming British-set romances, which have the potential to become three or more book series – in the style of Debbie Johnson’s ‘Comfort Food Café’ series and Hannah Ellis’s ‘Hope Cove’ series.

Our most exciting news for April is that we have just officially offered someone our Editorial Assistant job and she accepted! I can’t give any more details just yet, but in next month’s blog post I will be able to introduce her properly!

Amy Durant

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: FEBRUARY – ROMANCE, CRIME, APPLICATIONS

To pick up on the cliffhanger of last month – the exciting Romantic Novelists’ Association news is now public! They are running a new prize from this year, which we have agreed to sponsor. It is officially called the Sapere Books Popular Romantic Fiction Award. The shortlist of six books has been announced. In the running are THE LION TAMER WHO LOST by Louise Beech, ONE THOUSAND STARS AND YOU by Isabelle Broom, YOU ME EVERYTHING by Catherine Isaac, THIS COULD CHANGE EVERYTHING by Jill Mansell and A SKY PAINTED GOLD by Laura Wood. I do have a personal favourite but my lips are sealed until the winner is announced on March 4th!

We are still looking for our first staff-member. Applications are just about closed but we have well over 100 to go through, so that will keep us busy for the next few weeks! We’ve also had our first responses to our ‘Call For Nautical Fiction’ and it looks like we’ll be able to announce some naval fiction deals soon. We have just finalised our schedule for London Book Fair and we are pretty booked up for all three days, plus some evening events so that will be a full-on week for us!

The published titles for this month were a mix of genres. We published Valerie Holmes’ second Regency romance novel in her Yorkshire Saga just in time for Valentines Day. We’ve also published one of our first non-fiction titles: a ‘deadly’ history of the Thames in London by Irish author, Anthony Galvin. That was followed by two classic mysteries: THE PAINTED FACE by Jean Stubbs and STEP IN THE DARK by Elizabeth Lemarchand. Finally, we launched two action-packed thrillers: David Beckler’s debut, BROTHERHOOD, set in urban Manchester and John Matthews’ thought-provoking gun-control thriller, THE SECOND AMENDMENT.

Our final piece of news is that we will be going to CrimeFest this year for the first time, which we are thrilled about. Last year we went ‘on tour’ to cover the Crime Writers’ Association Conference in Shrewsbury and the Historical Novelists’ Conference in Cumbernauld, and to contribute to a writing panel in Chorley. We aren’t actually speaking at CrimeFest so it will be fun to just enjoy all the talks, dress up for the Gala dinner and of course, hang out at the bar 😊. We should find out the longlist for the Sapere Books Historical Dagger Award as well, which is very exciting.

Come back next month for our Book Fair news, March releases, RNA award announcements and potentially a hello from our new Editorial Assistant!

Amy Durant

 

 

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: JANUARY – HIRING, GENRES, AMAZON

It is an exciting start to the year for Sapere Books. We have decided to hire our first full-time staff member. Up until now Sapere Books had been solely run by its three co-founders – myself as Editorial Director, Caoimhe O’Brien as Marketing Director and Richard Simpson as Operations Director. We were also using freelancers last year to help with cover design and proofreading, but we have decided we are at a stage where we need a full-time extra pair of hands as well! So, in a couple of months I’ll have a new Editorial Assistant to introduce to everybody. It is our first time hiring so we are currently brainstorming what tests to set candidates and exactly what we want to ask them at the interview stage. More news on that in a few weeks!

We have also put a call out for ‘nautical fiction’, as that is a genre which is underrepresented in the market and which we know readers love, and we’ll be looking for other niche genres to sign up throughout the year. We are having a lot of success with our first ‘timeslip’ novel – The Catherine Howard Conspiracy by Alexandra Walsh, which alternates between the Tudor court and the modern day, so that may be an area we’ll expand into more in the coming months. Other than that, my inbox is full to bursting with submissions, which is fantastic, but I always find it slightly heartbreaking when I have to turn authors down. We are getting such a fantastic quality of submissions coming through that I am turning down lots of novels which are certainly good enough to be published, but we can’t say yes to all of them because we don’t want to flood our list, and end up not being able to give our books the attention they deserve.

The publication schedule for this month focussed largely on historical fiction. At the start of the year I published the fourth book in Elizabeth Bailey’s brilliant Regency mystery series and M J Logue’s first romantic thriller featuring Major Thankful Russell and his wife Thomazine, set during the Restoration. They were followed by a Medieval novel; the first part of a saga trilogy set at the time of the American Civil War; a crime novel featuring Charles Dickens as the investigator; and the final book in the eight-part Victorian mystery series we launched last year, featuring a husband and wife detective partnership. Next month will be more crime and thriller focussed – with a bit of romance thrown in in time for Valentine’s Day!

We have just had a catch up meeting at Amazon HQ to let them know what we will be publishing this year. The Amazon team have given us lots of ‘Kindle Daily Deal’ and ‘Kindle Monthly Deal’ slots over the past few months in the UK, US, Australia, Canada and even India, which can really give books a boost, so we are keen to keep the team over there up-to-date with our plans and the books we are publishing. I am also sorting out the diary for London Book Fair, which promises to be a crazily intense three days as always, but a brilliant time to catch up with literary agents, meet with authors – and indulge in a drink or two!

Finally, I have some exciting news to share to do with the Romantic Novelists’ Association but I have to wait until the official press release goes out next month so you’ll have to wait until then to hear more!

Amy Durant

 

INTRODUCING SISTER SCRIBES: KIRSTEN HESKETH

The second Sister Scribe I have pleasure in introducing is Kirsten Hesketh. Actually, she’s done a fab job of introducing herself… except she’s failed to mention that she’s kind, generous, funny and super-bright… and two glasses of sherry and a limoncello generally put her under the table.

 

Hello!

My name is Kirsten Hesketh and I am a novelist living in beautiful Henley-on-Thames. I am absolutely delighted to be part of Sister Scribes and I’m very excited to see how the project unfolds over the next weeks and months.

In fact, between you and me, I’m also feeling a twinge of Imposter Syndrome as I am the only one amongst our number who has yet to be published. Shhh … maybe they haven’t realised! Seriously, though, I hope my dispatches from the querying trenches will be interesting and entertaining: after all, isn’t it as much about the journey as the destination?

Anyway, a little about me.

My debut novel, Another Us, is the – hopefully! – poignant and funny story of a marriage at breaking point. Emma and Daniel’s son Jack has been diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome and Emma is horrified to discover that 80% of such marriages fall apart. I am neuro-typical – if there is such a thing! – but one of my children was diagnosed with mild Asperger Syndrome when he was ten. My book starts pretty close to where we were as a family at that time (with an extra child added in for good measure) but quickly moves into ‘what if?’ territory – exploring the impact of the diagnosis on the family and the marriage.

I wrote the book in fits and starts, slotting it around my day job as a marketing consultant. I made every writing mistake possible – trying to get it right before getting it written (painstakingly polishing passages that didn’t even make the final cut) and sending it out to agents as soon as I’d finished the first draft. I don’t think it really had a plot. Let alone a narrative arc!

About this time, I joined Twitter and started to discover that fellow writers really are the most generous and lovely bunch. Twitter led me to the Romantic Novelists’ Association (RNA) New Writers’ Scheme, which in turn led me to the RNA conference.  The RNA conference led me to delightfully raucous kitchen parties, sore head … and the other Sister Scribes. And along the way, I have met some truly inspirational women writers and poets and I am very excited to be introducing some of them to you in due course …

Once I had worked out what Another Us was really about. I redrafted and polished it and I started pitching to agents again. That was nerve-wracking, but once I’d received the first couple of rejections, I started to enjoy the process. I was lucky enough to have a little flurry of interest and I chose to sign with Felicity Trew from the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency who, interestingly, I had heard speak at the RNA conference. Felicity is advocate, enabler, co-conspirator and therapist all in one and I can’t wait to find out what happens next.

I’m now working on my second novel – affectionately titled Muddy Milly – which is set on an archaeological dig and is about a woman facing up to traumas in her past. My hubbie and I are heavily involved in a Roman dig near where we live in the Chilterns and I absolutely love it – the excitement, the camaraderie, the gentle exercise, the beautiful woodland. I’m really looking forward to March when the season starts again …

I’m a proud member of Reading Writers and am currently their treasurer and I’m still a member of the RNS New Writers’ Scheme. I am very much looking forward to the conference in the summer (although my liver is not).

I’m very much looking forward to meeting you all over the coming weeks and months.

Kirsten xx

 

Follow Kirsten on Twitter @Kirsten_Hesketh