Frost founder and editor Catherine Balavage has been interviewed by Best of You magazine about blogging and her new book, The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger. You can read the interview here or buy the print issue here. It is a great interview with lots of tips on blogging and becoming a successful blogger. Check it out.
This book is an intriguing mix of fact and fiction. Based on the history of the Cathars, a religious heresy of the medieval period in France, and with references to the Knights Templar, there is enough information to whet the appetite of those interested in such things without turning into overkill for those who just want a good story and don’t care too much about the setting. After a rather slow start and a lengthy list of characters to get to grips with, the story moves along at a good pace with some interesting twists and turns on route. A sort of archaeological treasure hunt with competitors ranging from a TV presenter through a religious group to members of the mafia. Some of the characters are stereotypical and didn’t really come to life for me, but others – including the two main – were more convincing. I was initially somewhat disappointed by the ending which didn’t seem to tie up all the loose ends, but then I realised that this book is intended as the first of a trilogy and all became clear. And the over-long list of characters was also explained. All in all a good enough read to make me look out for the next instalment at some stage, but not one which completely wowed me.
The Secret of the Cathars is published by Matador and available in paperback and as an e-book.
Ellie Deane has produced another heartwarming story in her Beach View Boarding House Series.
Sweet Memories of You is set in 1943 in Cliffhaven, a small town on the south coast of Britain. Peggy Reilly runs the Beach View Boarding House and is determined to give her lodgers and evacuees a homely, happy place to live.
Peggy’s husband, Jim, is away with the Army in India and she is reliant on his regular airgraphs to know he is safe. Doreen, Peggy’s younger sister, has at last found happiness after her divorce from her adulterous husband but fate changes this.
Doreen returns to Cliffhaven to the love and comfort of her family but her past cannot stay away.
There is however a protector in Ron Reilly and his faithful brindle lurcher, Harvey. Ron watches over everyone at Beach Villa and with his Irish charm, mischievous ways and network of friends, keeps trouble at bay.
Read and enjoy this charming story of ordinary people coping with the hardships of air raids, rationing and the heartaches of a war which feels as though will never end.
Ellie Dean has lived in a village in the heart of the South Downs for many years. She has raised 3 children and this is her tenth novel in a successful writing career.
Published by Arrow in paperback: Price £5.99.
Also available as an ebook.
Synopsis: A brief summary of the plot of a novel, motion picture, play etc. by Gillian Holmes
A very talented friend of mine sent me the synopsis of the novel she was writing for her Creative Writing MA. Her tutor had sent her away with a flea in her ear, and she came to me with no real idea of what she’d done wrong.
As a veteran of synopses of nearly twenty years standing, I saw immediately that she had made a very common error. Namely, she’d forgotten what a synopsis is. She thought she needed to show her thinking behind the book, and give the reader a flavour of what was to come. Consequently, she had managed to give far too much information, while also giving too little.
How is that possible?
Do you see where I’m going here? So when you sit down to write your synopsis, always remember that this is not a creative work, so don’t try to be too clever. Clarity is everything.
So what do agents and editors want from a synopsis?
And that’s it. Easy peasy.
If you’re wondering about my friend, I sent her back to rewrite her synopsis several times. But it was worth it. She got an A for it in the end.
Gillian has been an editor for mainstream publishers for twenty years. Now she runs her own editorial agency.
To contact Gillian: gilliansholmes@hotmail.com
The Ultimate Guide To Blogging is Launched.
The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger by Catherine Balavage is now published.
ISBN 978-0-9929639-8-9
It’s all here, just take your time, and let the expert take you by the hand, and save you zillions of hours of stop and start mistakes.
Bravo, a book that needed writing …
Bestselling author Margaret Graham
Catherine Balavage, editor and founder of Frost Magazine, has published a new blogging book based on over ten years worth of blogging experience. Catherine founded Frost Magazine six years ago and in that time has made it into a successful online magazine. She first started blogging eleven years ago when she was a teenager with a LiveJournal blog. She is also one of The Huffington Post’s signature bloggers. Blogging has become huge in recent years and is only becoming more popular. The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger has everything anyone could want to know about being a successful blogger.
From design to advertising, social media and publicity, the book is everything you need to start your blogging career. The book is packed with hundreds of useful tips and invaluable information which will save you hours of time and give you essential information to develop your blog to its full potential. It also covers vlogging and how to market your blog. The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger is an in-depth and thorough book which covers every aspect of being a success in digital publishing. It covers various revenue streams, how to write the best content, how to take the best pictures, social media and SEO. Perfect for beginners or those who already have a blog but are unsure of how to take it to the next level, the book has a chapter on interviews with essential advice from other successful blogger, including beauty blogger Really Ree.
This is Catherine Balavage’s third book. She has also written an Amazon bestseller on Acting, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, and a wedding planning book, The Wedding Survival Guide: How To Plan Your Big Day Without Losing Your Sanity.
The Ultimate Guide To Becoming a Successful Blogger is available on amazon.co.uk and is included in Amazon’s Kindle Countdown Deal. It is only £1.99 for another six days.
Ruth Wilson got so upset by the amount of sex scenes in The Affair that she called a meeting to discuss it with the makers of the show. She says she found it “unnecessary and I felt uncomfortable”, adding: “Personally, I didn’t want to keep doing sex scenes and blow jobs.”
What followed was a chat with the directors and the show runner. Everything is now fine, she says.
“You have to listen to yourself in those situations. There’s still sex in it but it wasn’t expected that I would be nude.”
Ruth took the part in The Affair after getting annoyed with the lack of opportunities for women in Hollywood.
“To be honest, I wasn’t really looking at TV for America because I know the contracts and how long they are, but the film scripts weren’t good enough. There’s a very small number of women who get to do the best material that’s around, and there are probably only three movies scripts a year with good female roles in them. So there’s a limited amount of material to do. With television there’s so many shows led by women, it’s amazing.”
Ruth also talked about how hard it was to maintain a relationship when you are an actor. The 34-year-old actress told British Instyle:
“You can’t go on Tinder. You usually tend to find people you’ve known for a long time. It is difficult. Just the nature of the job means it’s difficult. The fame side of it is one aspect. But the fact that you are travelling a lot, or you have to be away a lot. It’s difficult to maintain a relationship even without the fame aspect of it.”
Ruth was asked about her rumoured relationship with Jake Gyllenhaal, she replied, “I don’t know. I don’t give much away and I don’t want to. It’s not anyone’s business.”
If you are an actor then check out my book, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur. It tells you everything you need to know about how to become a successful actor.
Frost is delighted to have an editor of Gillian’s calibre to help aspiring authors. It’s particularly apt, because the fundraising Independent Author Book Award, run by www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk is open for entries until 6th March 2016.
Last year’s winner, Jane Cable, is now represented by the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency as a direct result of the competition. Felicity Trew of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency is judging this year’s Award.
So over to Gillian:
Early Chapters
It’s tough being a writer, and we editors appreciate that. I have never written a book – if you don’t count the half-written romance with a Daniel-Craig-as-Bond-type hero, but the least said about that the better. So all writers who have the tenacity and commitment to complete a novel have already earned my full admiration.
However, on the other side of the coin, having worked as an acquiring editor, a reader for literary agents, and a reader for competitions, you can appreciate, I’ve probably read more than my fair share of opening chapters and synopses. And sometimes I stop within half a page. It sounds brutal, but when you have a lot of manuscripts to read, you simply don’t have the time or the inclination to read on to see if it improves.
So here are ten tips to help you catch the eye of the judges.
First the Don’ts:
Now the Dos
Soon I will be giving you some hints on writing the synopsis.
www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk
http://www.carolinesheldon.co.uk
Always one to bring the party, Amy Schumer was the centre of the Critics Choice awards, making everyone laugh when she accepted the award for MVP.
“Thank you for this trophy, covering the reason I have to write my own [stuff], If you’re an actress and you have this area right here, [points to her stomach] you have to write your own stuff if you want to get it made.”
Then she made fun of how patronising the word “brave” can be.
“This is where I get really ‘brave’ as everyone said after my Annie Leibovitz photo. That’s what you want everyone to say when a naked photo of you goes viral. You want them to say, ‘What a brave photo.’ You’re like, ‘Thanks, wow, thank you,” .
Photo credit: wikipedia. Mario Santoro
She then thanked “the managers I fired.” Finishing with “This is so boring, I am so sorry you guys. Nobody cares,”
For more actors who make their own work read this article. You can also check out my new book, How To Be a Successful Actor: Becoming an Actorpreneur, out now. It tells you all about how to become a successful actor.