BEST ENDEAVOURS BEST IDEAS: Jane Cable on what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Jane Cable

Isn’t it funny how the most important emails just seem to slide into your inbox at the most inopportune times? Late on Monday afternoon my edit notes and first proof came back from Endeavour – just as I was wolfing down an early supper ready to go to Chindi Authors’ monthly meeting. I scanned the email – heart in mouth – only to find myself reeling from the last sentence.
But I had no time to consider the contents – the Chindi meeting was an important one, mainly devoted to planning the final details of our #LovetoRead fundraising evening for Dyslexia Action on Friday. Raffle prizes to co-ordinate, running order to finalise, budget for canapés to be agreed… All whirling around my head in an unusually disorganized fashion while I tried to digest the email bombshell.
To be honest, now I’m used to the idea, it doesn’t seem so bad. Endeavour want me to change the title of the book, that’s all. And to put things in context, the edit notes extended to only three points, the last one prefaced with the phrase ‘this probably isn’t important’. They’re useful and fair and acting on them will certainly improve the book.

The problem with changing the title was that I didn’t have a clue where to begin. You become wedded to the name of your book over the years of development and when agent Felicity loved it too I felt sure I’d be able to keep it. Changing my mindset is something akin to turning an oil tanker but I’m determined to do it and come up with something better.
First some guidance was required from Amy, Endeavour’s publishing director and her answer came back clear and strong: look in the Kindle charts for books of a similar genre – and a tip that short phrases from films or songs often do well. Now my knowledge of films is limited to say the least (having not been to the cinema since the third… or maybe fourth… Harry Potter movie came out) but at least I have a neighbour with a first class degree in the subject so his enormous brain was brought to bear on the challenge.
I quickly realised it’s impossible to instil all the nuances of a book into just a few words and that made me try to set out what it’s really about. It isn’t about seahorses (although they feature fairly strongly) and it isn’t about summer (although the action all takes place between April and August). It’s about being damaged, and healing, and moving on with your life. Or not – as the case may be. It looks back at the past – D-Day specifically – or perhaps the past looks forwards at us. No one title is ever going to cover it all.
So now there is a page in my notebook with an increasing number of titles on it. The most obvious ones have inevitably been taken but I have a few which might just do the trick. And I’m still canvassing opinion, so if you have any bright ideas then please, please let me know.

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. Jane will be reading from The Faerie Tree at Chindi Author’s #LovetoRead party in Chichester on 18th November. More details here: http://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/news/
The Seahorse Summer (or whatever it ends up being called) tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

The Best Books For Children This Christmas

Posted on November 11, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

Beatrix Potter Fashion Designer Collection

Five of Beatrix Potter’s best-loved tales with new covers, notes and endpapers from influential fashion designers including Henry Holland, Preen and Orla Kiely. The perfect stocking-filler.

The Tales of: Squirrel Nutkin, Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Tom Kitten and Jemima Puddle-Duck
£6.99 each

We particularly loved The Tale of Tom Kitten, designed by The Rodnik Band and The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin, designed by Preen. Gorgeous covers and classic stories.

The Tale Of Squirrel Nutkin and the other Beatrix Potter Designer Editions are available here.)

#beatrix150

My Encyclopaedia of Very Important Things. For little learners who want to know everything.

A really wonderful book that entertains and educates in equal measure. Perfect for inquisitive children, it has great photography and illustrations. It also supports the KS1 National Curriculum. Divided into six sections: my planet, places, animals, people, me and other very important things. A great book.

My Encyclopedia of Very Important Things is available here.

Lego Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure

A real treat for the over-8s. Lego Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure includes a rebel pilot mini figure and exclusive Y-wing Star Fighter. It also has tips and ideas on how to build other LEGO Star Wars models. It has over 50 building ideas. Will make your child’s eyes light up on Christmas day.

LEGO Star Wars Build Your Own Adventure is available here.

How to be a Cat by Lisa Swerling & Ralph Lazar

Children can be a lot like cats. They love milk, always sit in boxes and love playing with string. This a fun and happy book. Great illustrations and observations. From the super successful husband and wife team Lisa Swerling & Ralph Lazar.

How to be a Cat: The Definitive Guide is available here.

BEST ENDEAVOURS: Jane Cable On Her Digital Publishing Deal. Best Laid Plans 2

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Jane Cable

BEST ENDEAVOURS

Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

BEST LAID PLANS 2

Way back when, about a hundred or so years ago, I used to work in PR. Great fun it was, except when I had to pick up the phone to some unsuspecting journalist (or anyone else, for that matter) so as I struggled up the greasy pole to the dizzy heights of account management, I needed an assistant.

Enter Lisa. A former drama student who was frankly wasted as PA to one of my clients. We worked together; lived near each other (defeating the tube strikes by driving from Wimbledon to the South Bank in my beaten up Ford Fiesta); even escaped the evil pitches we worked for together, to end up in an office above a hairdresser in Kensington with a kindly but chaotic boss who spoiled and cherished us. And we’re still friends twenty five years later.

It was Lisa who sent me the original tiny silver seahorse featured in the story, wrapped up in tissue inside a birthday card. And even more surprisingly, this year she sent me an improved model on a chain, together with matching earrings. Because she’d seem them and thought of me. They arrived just days before Endeavour made their offer on the book.

So who but Lisa would I turn to for the PR expertise to launch The Seahorse Summer? She did a fantastic job for me on The Cheesemaker’s House, and this time it should be just a fraction easier. Why? Because even in these enlightened days there are a great many newspapers and magazines who won’t touch independently publisher authors.

To be honest we spent most of our meeting at a mutually convenient motorway service station catching up on family news. For a few years in our twenties we lived in each other’s pockets and while distance and circumstances don’t exactly separate you, they do drive a wedge into your understanding of the everyday aspects of each other’s lives. But when you actually meet, it all falls into place again so easily and trust is instantly restored. I drove away thinking there’s a novel in that somewhere.

But as usual I digress. This blog is meant to be about planning a PR campaign. The objective is very much to get reviews. It’s hard to think of a big enough hook to make this a news story, so the book is going to have to stand or fall on its own merits. But stand or fall, it needs to stand out from the crowd. And we did come up with a couple of potential ways to achieve this.

The next most important thing is targeting the right journalists and this will be Lisa’s next task. It isn’t as easy as it was in the 80s when you could just phone the magazine and ask. There wasn’t such a thing as email and everything had to be sent snail mail. Or in our case, packing Lisa into a taxi filled with goodies and sending her off to spend the day at ICP towers, chatting to writers and distributing her loot. In 2016 she probably wouldn’t even get past security.

Jane Cable is the author of two independently published romantic suspense novels, The Cheesemaker’s House and The Faerie Tree, and a sporadic contributor to Frost. The Seahorse Summer tells the tale of how two American soldiers born sixty years apart help forty-something Marie Johnson to rebuild her shattered confidence and find new love. Discover more at www.janecable.com.

Stepping Out: Review

Posted on November 9, 2016 by Vicky Edwards

Stepping Out

In rehearsals for Stepping Out

At Chichester Festival Theatre until 19 November (Booking: 01243 781312; www.cft.org.uk)

At the Vaudeville Theatre, London, 1 March – 17 June 2017 (Booking: www.nimaxtheatres.com)

Directed by Maria Friedman

Cast: Amanda Holden, Angela Griffin, Tracy-Ann Oberman, Tamzin Outhwaite, Nicola Stephenson, Judith Barker, Rose Keegan, Sandra Marvin, Jessica-Alice Mccluskey, Dominic Rowan, Janet Behan, Emma Hook, Katie Verner and Nick Warnford

A weekly tap dancing class in a community hall is the setting for a story that follows the lives of a group of ladies and a solitary man. Like many adult education classes, all human life is here.

Boasting a cast that includes several popular faces from television, Tracy-Ann Oberman is on superb form as wise-cracking Maxine. Glamorous in a wardrobe of nearly new and knock-off, the more-front-than-Brighton exterior conceals a tender and vulnerable heart. Tamzin Outhwaite as is also touching in her role class teacher Mavis. With her dreams of being a dancer dramatically reconfigured and an unhappy relationship to cope with, teaching is both her salvation and a constant needling reminder that she never quite made it. Amanda Holden as posh but tactless neat freak Vera delivers some of the production’s funniest moments, admitting only towards the end that her perfect life isn’t quite so perfect after all.

Everyone, in fact, has a secret to reveal, but the audience is short changed; what the final outcome is for each of the characters is anyone’s guess. Pace, too, is a frustration. A lethargic beginning gives way to a gentle potter before coming to a rather abrupt and inconclusive ending.

But the dialogue is sharp enough, the performances are (largely) accomplished and the familiar theme of trying to get along with people with whom one has little in common will surely resonate. Touring prior to the West End next year, hopefully the tempo will pick up and settle along the way. Then, no doubt, Stepping Out will be packing ‘em in.

Best Endeavours, Best of Spirits: Jane Cable’s on what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Jane Cable

BEST ENDEAVOURS

Jane Cable’s blog about what happens once that digital publishing deal is in the bag continues.

BEST OF SPIRITS

For a writer of ghost stories Hallowe’en offers apparently boundless opportunities to promote your work. I benefitted greatly from this when my first novel, The Cheesemaker’s House, hit the bookshops one September and my friend and PR Lisa Holden was able to secure some wonderful reviews in seasonal features.

2016 is The Cheesemaker’s House’s fourth witching season so once again I decided to make the best of it by running promotions on Twitter and on Facebook to give away iBooks. While I won’t ‘sell’ my books for a big fat zero on Amazon (or anywhere else, for that matter) I’m happy to give iBooks – and paperbacks – as competition prizes because it opens the doors to new readers and requires a certain amount of engagement from them. And as you may have gathered, I just love engaging with people who love books.

This year my local writers’ group, Chindi Authors, has been supporting #LovetoRead (more of which in a few weeks) and as part of our efforts those of us with sufficient courage have been videoed reading from our books. My offering – the first chapter of The Cheesemaker’s House – can be accessed via my website here http://janecable.com/the-book/4577579495 . Do me a favour if you do visit the link… listen, but don’t look. But at least I can take comfort in the knowledge that next time I’ll dress more carefully.

Much as I love writing ghost stories I fell into it by accident. The Cheesemaker’s House didn’t start out that way, and The Seahorse Summer began life with a very different ghost. But I have a genuine fascination with the fictional possibilities presented by the ripping of the veil between this world and the next and with every new character from beyond the grave I want to stretch the boundaries a little bit more.

This year the Hallowe’en fear factor increased when Reading Writers asked me to judge their autumn competition which was for a short format ghost story. One poem and eight prose pieces later I realised that writers across all genres had been prepared to give it a go. Fantasy, thriller and humour were all represented and the winner used characters from his military work in progress to brilliant effect.

It was also a new experience sitting in front of a room full of writers and giving them feedback on their work. Most were extremely gracious (although I did detect a pursed lip or two), but technical errors aside at the end of the day a winning story is a matter of personal choice. It made me realise just how lucky I was that The Cheesemaker’s House found people who loved it… and just happened to be judging competitions.

The Fiesta Continues

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Kesh

Argentine Pop-Up Barullo delivered and conquered the appetites of many an anticipating guest this week. Hosted by Wines of Argentina and catered by Mauro Colagreco, we danced, drank and dined our way through the South American splendour in the heart of Hoxton. Barullo delivered to us Argentina with an extra serving of wine. My aim was to make my way though the extensive wine list but found myself somewhere after my 4th glass of Torrontes before I found that to be ‘wishful drinking’. Mauro Colagreco, owner of renowned Two Michelin Star French restaurant Mirazur, served up a sumptuous four-course meal perfectly suited to the supper-club style dining area making it an evening full of the delights of Argentina.

The end of Barullo does not mean the fiesta has ended though as our equally esteemed Argentine friends at Gaucho have come up with another night to remember with another appearance from Mauro himself. On the 11th November. Gaucho welcomes “The 10 Hands”. Featuring 5 of the most influential and creative chefs of Argentina; Mauro Colagreco, Fernando Trocca, Narda Lepez, Guido Tassi and German Martitegui, are to showcase their gastronomic expertise just for you. Centered around the infamous Asado (Argentine Barbecue), Gaucho Piccadilly’s terrace will be transformed into a night of Argentine bbq indulgence featuring five-courses of pure Argentinian fayre served with pairings from their sumptuous wine list.

Tickets are priced at £100 and will be available from the Gaucho Website;

www.gauchorestaurants.com

Sequential Drawings The New Yorker Series By Richard McGuire

Posted on November 1, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

I really loved this book of drawings from Richard McGuire. Not only does it tell a story, but I also found it meditative. A wonderful book to add to any art lovers collection.

From the author of the widely acclaimed graphic novel Here, awarded the 2016 Prix D’or for best graphic album at Angouleme, a new graphic work that celebrates another aspect of his incomparable genius.
Sequential Drawings gathers together more than a decade of McGuire’s witty and endlessly inventive spots a veritable short-story collection each drawing given its own spread, which, in turn, assures for the reader the experience of surprise and delight that the drawings unfailingly deliver. Richard McGuire’s first series of “spot” drawings debuted inThe New Yorker in February 2005 for the magazine’s 80th anniversary issue. Spot drawings, scattered among the magazine’s text, had been a long-running feature of The New Yorker, and over the years, many artists had contributed them. But McGuire was the first to conceive them as a sequence, and his drawings were something altogether new: deceptively simple images that imbued the series with movement and narrative, telling their own unexpected stories.
With illustrations throughout and an introduction by Luc Sante.

RICHARD McGUIREis a regular contributor to The New Yorker. His comics have appeared in The New York Times, McSweeneys, Le Monde, and Liberation.He has written and directed two omnibus feature films: Loulou et Autre Loups (Loulou and Other Wolves, 2003), and Peur(s) du Noir (Fear[s] of the Dark, 2007). He designed and manufactured his own line of toys, and is the founder and bass player of the band Liquid Liquid.Here was based on his six-page comic that appeared in RAWmagazine in 1989 and was quickly acknowledged as a transformative work that expanded the possibilities of the comics medium.”

Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series is available here.

Sisters At War by Milly Adams Book Review

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Catherine Balavage

This is Frost Magazine’s must read book of the moment. Milky Adam’s Sisters At War. #books #goodreads #historicalfiction #reading

A photo posted by Catherine Balavage (@frostmag) on Oct 10, 2016 at 4:41am PDT

Sisters At War is the second book by Milly Adams and it is yet another brilliant piece of historical fiction. Sisters at War is like a Sunday Afternoon. It is like one of those great BBC dramas that you watch with your family that are both entertaining but also filling. They teach you something: entertainment with substance. Warm and life-affirming; it is hard for younger people to fathom wartime. Lucky us, but the previous generations suffered, fought and sacrificed.

Sisters at War is about two sisters. Selfish Hannah and selfless Byrony. Hannah is irritating. You really want to slap her. I think we all have a Hannah in our life. Byrony is the best of humanity. A person of decency and morals. Hannah only cares about herself and stays in Jersey. Bryony is happiest amongst her family and loved ones and stays at Combe Lodge where everyone is pitching in. The family home has filled with evacuees and Bryony has joined the ATA, helping to ferry planes across the country, whatever the risk.

Sister at War is a wonderful book. A hard to put down book which fills the soul.

A compelling new Second World War novel. Perfect for fans of Katie Flynn and Ellie Dean.

Bryony and Hannah are sisters, but they couldn’t be more different, and war has brought even more of a rift between them. Bryony is happiest where her family and loved ones are – at Combe Lodge, the family home – and these uncertain times have brought them all closer together. But Hannah is young and headstrong. No one will stop her from doing what she wants – and this time she’s decided to flee to Jersey.

Even though Hannah has left, at Combe Lodge, everyone else is pitching in with the war effort. The family home fills with evacuees and Bryony is doing her bit, flying planes at the nearby Combe Lodge Airlines.

But despite all that is going on with war, Bryony knows that above everything she needs to reach out to Hannah. Only she will be able to keep her flighty younger sister’s feet on the ground. But is Bryony too late to help her? Will Hannah ever come home?

Sisters at War is available here.

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