Category Archives: People

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – KICKSTARTER QUEEN YASMIN THORNBER

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Yasmin has recently reached her Kickstarter goal to crowdfund and create her very first children’s book ‘A Brolly-iant Adventure’.

What was the first piece of writing advice you received?

My English teacher, Mr Clouting, once said – a piece doesn’t always need to start from the beginning and finish with an end… It didn’t make sense to me at the time, but it did eventually. It helped me create short fun stories and imaginative illustrations that spoke for themselves, and allowed the audience to put themselves into the piece…. I guess what he taught me, without ever really knowing he taught me, was that less is more…

What was the most recent piece of writing advice you gave or received?

I haven’t really received or provided any advice on writing. I’ve witnessed more fun facts and inspiration around illustrating. My first love is to draw, the writing / words came from the drawings, like a little whisper in my ear.

The most recent “words of wisdom” I’ve fallen across all come from the inspiring and simple messages hidden in other children’s books… like Mini Grey’s message of the importance of patience in “Egg Drop” or Catherine Rayner’s beautiful reminder on how to find your own happiness in “Augustus and his Smile” or the nudge from Julia Donaldson “The Snail and the Whale” that it’s okay to leave your comfort zone for a bit of adventure …or David Litchfield’s sincere message in “The Bear and the Piano” about being supported and supporting those you love in reaching their dreams…

These are all words of wisdom that stick to me and my way of life and thinking, and that’s the biggest impact anyone could have…

What advice would you most like to pass on?

Have fun, notice the little things, do things for you, not for the money or because someone wants you to. Be kind and gentle on yourself. Life can be hard, but the journey alone is worth it.

 

 

Drawing is something that has always given me comfort and happiness. I think this is why it’s one of few things I actively pursue on a daily basis. I take great inspiration in the little things in life – seeing faces and characters in inanimate objects like bins, cars, shadows and cutlery. I enjoy observing the mundane and breathing a bit of life into them – these things make the wildest stories in my mind – they seem to escape my brain and out through the tips of my fingers.

From an early age I had always journaled and doodled – this slowly began to evolve into whole, final pieces and eventually into commissioned work. Artwork is my strongest link to my childhood and that feeling of pure, innocent happiness. In the famous words of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “All grown-ups were once children… but only few of them remember it” With the help of a pencil and a piece of paper, I hope to be one of those grown-ups that never let the world fade to a dull grey.

2018 has been the hardest but most rewarding year so far – with books, pin badges, prints and stickers being create and fetes and exhibitions being attended. My ultimate goal though is to continuing seeing the world with the heart and not just the eyes…

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TAKE FOUR WRITERS – CONNECTING, SIGNING, RETREATING

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LUCY COLEMAN… CONNECTING

My second novel writing as Lucy Coleman for Aria Fiction is now staring back at me from my bookshelf. And I will admit that it’s still a huge thrill for me, even though it’s my thirteenth.

Snowflakes Over Holly Cove begins and ends at Christmas, but the year in between is an emotional rollercoaster.

The first reviews are in and one reviewer said it brought tears to her eyes. Why? Because of the mention of eggnog in one emotional scene.

In real life it’s the little memories that often attach themselves to the silliest of things. In this story, for the character Tia, it reminds her of her mother… and the sentiment and connection touched that reviewer’s heart, too.

An author can’t ask for any more than that. I’m feeling truly blessed and reminded why I write. And that is reader power. Reviews touch authors’ hearts, too!

 

ANGELA PETCH… SIGNING

Whoops! It’s been quite a month and I almost missed my Frost deadline. (Visions of ed, visor pulled down to cover glower, tapping fingers on her desk…sorry!)

I’m now officially a hybrid author. I can’t explain how happy I feel to have signed a two-book deal with the Bookouture “family”, as they describe their publishing team. My first novel is to be edited and reissued June 2019 and a new Tuscan novel, released April 2020. They have been understanding about deadlines. How lucky am I?

I’m exchanging ideas with my cover designer for “Mavis and Dot”, but as soon as I self-publish and launch on December 1st, then it is action stations with Bookouture. I’m so excited.

Other news: a successful first “Write Away in Tuscany” ended five days ago – exhausting but exhilarating. Eight writers travelled to our corner of Tuscany and we shared scrumptious Italian food and writing sessions. We are running it next year with modified content. Bring on 2019…

 

CLAIRE DYER… RETREATING

Last month I went on a writing retreat at Tŷ Newydd in North Wales (http://www.literaturewales.org/our-projects/ty-newydd/). It was the sixth time I’d spent time there, having previously attended both poetry and prose tutored workshops. This one was slightly different in that there was no formal element to the week. Our facilitator, Julia Forester, gently guided us, provided the chance to have one-on-one chats with her and ran a couple of sessions on submitting work and managing our time. The rest of the week was spent blissfully either working on our current projects, walking the footpath down to the beach, visiting local places of interest, chatting to one another over cups of tea or swimming in the sea. The food and company were both delicious.

My aim in going was to work on some poems I hope will form the basis of a new collection. The subject matter was hard and painful. In addition, my home life, rather than retreating to a safe distance and leaving me alone, intruded when both of my children had issues they wanted mum-input on and, seeing that being a mum is my main job and being a writer is my second job, I had to respond.

And what did this prove? We may go on retreat but we take our real lives with us. The writer’s life means we have to fit our writing in around other stuff and that this other stuff informs our writing. An ivory tower might sound a nice idea, but I think one would be both impractical and uninspiring!

 

JACKIE BALDWIN… DRAFTING

Hello again! Another busy month. I’ve been getting on with the first draft of book 3 in my DI Frank Farrell series. It always takes me a while to get into the rhythm of writing a new book but I’ve settled into it now and at the exciting stage where I don’t yet quite know what’s going to happen!

On 5th September, I was up in Edinburgh to read an extract from my work at’ Noir at the Bar.’ It was a criminally good night with a great variety of crime writers both published and unpublished.

This weekend I was at ‘Bloody Scotland’ in Stirling. It provides a great opportunity to catch up with old friends and make some new ones in the crime writing and crime reading fraternities. A particular highlight was the Pitch Perfect Session where eight writers have exactly three minutes to convince a panel of agents and publishers that they must read their book.

See you next month!

Little Splashers by Hape – Review

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How many parents – and grandparents  – look forward to that time when you can dunk the little ones in the bath and know that bed time is just around the corner. It’s a lovely time of the day, for many reasons, but bath toys are always a welcome addition along with the bubbles. I’m already a huge fan of Hape products but the new Little Splashers range is wonderful. First of all, no scissors or screwdrivers needed to prise these colourful creatures from the packaging. A mere second to peel away the sticker and the package pops open with a little pressure in the right place – an added bonus. I loathe packaging.

The toys themselves appear larger that others I’ve come across and perfect for little hands. We tested the cheery red octopus, the green puffer fish, a crab and a starfish. Two sea creatures in each pack.

They quickly fill with water and squirt from different places – the starfish from every point, the octopus from every arm. Our little testers had lots of fun whether they were empty or full of water. The fish and star fish have suckers which means they can stick on the side of the bath so there were lots of different opportunities for play.

Far and above the kids enjoyment I really rated the addition of removable pieces that allowed me to empty out all of the water and properly dry the inside of the toys. So much more hygienic. A really lovely addition to bath time.

 

Hape Teddy and Friends Bath Squirts, Suitable for 0 months +, £12.49 

Swimming Teddy was the cause of lots of fun and laughter. Smiley Teddy with his swimsuit and rubber ring sped across the bath, powering through the bubbles. A lovely size to hold and easy to use – a few turns of the button on his back sets his legs kicking through the water. Great fun to be had before bedtime.

 

Hape Swimmer Teddy Wind-up Toy, Suitable for 12 months +, £9.99 

 

Nature Fun by Hape – Review

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We’re just loving these great eco friendly HAPE toys made from bamboo, the fastest growing plant in the world. The NATURE FUN range is perfect for tempting the kids outside. We particularly love the FLOWER PRESS DIY KIT aimed at children 5 years and up.

Who doesn’t enjoy kicking through the autumn leaves and taking a handful home to press and keep. With the HAPE FLOWER PRESS KIT kids can use flowers and leaves to create a beautiful art gallery.

The set comprises wooden boards and bamboo sheets in which to capture those precious treasures they’ve found on their treks in nature.

HAPE have extended the play value by including sheets with line drawings of dragons, princesses, hot air balloons and an assortment of other pictures for budding artists to paint and decorate, encouraging their creativity.

A well constructed set, it includes paint and a brush to get kids started. A really lovely gift and a fabulous way to get kids interested in the beauty of the world around them.

HAPE Flower Press Art DIY Kit £11.71 from Amazon

 

Also in the NATURE FUN RANGE is the Hide and Seek periscope.

Made from sustainable bamboo and featuring a handy wrist strap the Hape Persicope is great for young adventurers and explorers. Hide away and peek around corners and over walls without being seen. Great for looking down rabbit holes!

Hape Hide & Seek Periscope £13.98 from Amazon

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST EVERYTHING – EDITOR AND READING RETREAT ORGANISER CRESSIDA DOWNING

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What was the first piece of book business related advice you were given?

I was told to read widely, but it wasn’t advice I needed to be honest, I’ve been a voracious reader since my early years.  When I was starting out as an editor, I learnt that a book has to be more than just ‘good enough’ to be taken on by agents and publishers.  It needs a spark or something just that little bit more for them to get enthusiastic about it.

 

What was the most recent piece of bookish advice you gave or received?

I was talking to a young person who wanted to get into publishing, and I suggested they try and get a job in a bookshop.  There is no better training ground for understanding the book industry today and for meeting readers.  Readers should be at the heart of everything publishers do, but they can get side-lined!

I think everyone should make friends with their local bookshop.  Booksellers have a wealth of knowledge that they love to share, and bookshops are such beautiful places to spend time in.

 

What piece of advice would you most like to pass on?

Never have a reading pile bigger than your head – actually I can’t say I follow that!  Prioritise reading, it’s really good for your health (many studies have shown) and it’s one of the first things that gets put aside in busy lives.  It can be as simple as setting aside an hour at the weekend as your own personal book moment, and you’ll find it spreads!  Of course if you’re struggling, you can always come on a Reading Retreat…

 

Biography – Cressida Downing is a freelance editor who has worked in bookselling and publishing for over 25 years.  She runs www.readingretreat.co.uk with her business partner, Sara Noel, dedicated to taking readers away and letting them fall back in love with reading again.

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: TAKE FOUR WRITERS – EVENTING, TALKING, PLAYING, UPLIFTING

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JACKIE BALDWIN… EVENTING

Hello, again! This month has been super busy as my son got married on the 11th August. The week before I was so stressed I thought I might spontaneously combust but the day itself was utterly magical! I am now trying to keep the peace between my son’s cat and our two dogs who are not his biggest fans.

On the writing front, the paperback of Perfect Dead will be released on Thursday 23rd August. I am not having a launch as the day before that I am doing an event in Waterstones, Dumfries, with the fabulous Lin Anderson, who is ‘Tartan Noir’ royalty. The event has only recently been confirmed, so imagine my shock when I was meandering along the High Street in Dumfries and came face to face with a large poster of myself and Lin Anderson out on the pavement!

After that, it will be time to knuckle down and get on with the next book in the series.

Have a great month!

 

CLAIRE DYER… TALKING

This month I want to talk about talking. I don’t mean chatting to our friends over coffee or a nice cool glass of Chablis but talking about our books on our hind legs in front of other people.

It’s a very odd thing to do. After all, most writers are notoriously private people and so, to be exposed to actual readers and other writers is odd. Well I find it so anyway.

Why should this be so? Well, I’ve grown used to my books. They are incredibly special but it’s kind of embarrassing to talk about something so familiar, it’s like describing an old pair of jeans, you wonder whether anyone else will really be interested.

After all, by the time a book is published, its author has read it about a million times (OK, I might be exaggerating, but it feels like it), it has been pulled apart, put back together, tweaked, cajoled, buffed and polished to within an inch of its life and therefore, when asked, ‘What’s your book about?’ or ‘How did you think up your main character?’ or ‘Why did you end the book that way?’, it is, strangely, sometimes hard to find the right words.

 

ANGELA PETCH… PLAYING

This month, after the excitement of RNA Conference, I moved south to the Sussex Downs to stay with our eldest daughter, waiting for the birth of her third child. The heat was comparable to our hot weather in Tuscany but the surroundings very different. I had no time for writing, immersed as I was in the world of two and four-year old toddlers. Lego, cars, story reading, bottom wiping, cooking and washing filled my time. We played pretend games, which is not a million miles from being a writer, and all the while, I stored snippets in my head for future stories. It was a privilege to be in England when baby Finn arrived on August 1st.

Instead of creative writing, I’ve managed to squeeze in admin for the first Write Away in Tuscany that takes place at our Tuscan home from September 11th – 18th. I’m back in Italy now, finalising details. Mavis and Dot are being honed in the meantime and Cancer Research is supporting my campaign for funds for the launch of these two ladies.

 

LUCY COLEMAN… UPLIFTING

The arrival of the school holidays means coping with weekly sleepovers, then frenetically trying to catch up with a growing ‘to do’ list. But it’s important to me to grab as much quality family time as possible.

Writers spend a lot of their time living in a world they’ve created. I’m lucky in that I write about life, relationships and the pursuit of a happy ending. I set the mood by playing soft music and having an essential oil diffuser wafting out rose geranium and lavender. It’s uplifting.

This month has been all about preparing for the release of Lucy Coleman’s ‘Snowflakes Over Holly Cove’ on the 18 September 2018. But it’s also a nervous time for an author.

It’s a story about loss and finding love, and as cosy as a mug of hot chocolate! Set in Caswell Bay on the stunningly rugged Gower Coast, it’s one of my favourite places to walk…

 

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – ROMANCE AUTHOR CASSANDRA GRAFTON

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What was the first writing advice you were ever given?

If I think back to when I started to seriously consider writing full-length stories, the first piece of advice I recall was ‘just keep putting the words on the page’. After all, you can’t polish and edit a blank page, can you?

At the time, I’d only ever completed short stories, mostly co-written, for online communities. A solo writing project was a challenge in itself, but I didn’t really think of it as ‘writing a novel’ because of the serial nature of posting online.

It was the encouragement (and above advice) from those communities that helped me to get started, and it’s down to their on-going support and feedback that I managed to keep going, no matter what life threw at me. I just kept putting one word after the other, until eventually I’d finished telling the story I wanted to share.

 

Photo copyright is Adrea Scheidler Photography

What was the most recent writing advice you were given?

I follow a lot of writing blogs on Twitter, and many of them have wonderful snippets of advice, one of the most practical of which in recent months was about removing redundant words from your manuscript.

I discovered there were plenty of lists out there, once I’d put ‘redundant words in your novel’ into Google, and soon I was working my way through my extremely long manuscript and culling them (thank you, Word, for the Search and Replace function). In the end, nearly 10,000 redundant words sailed off into the blue yonder; not one of them was missed!

It turns out, however, that my biggest overuse of anything is not a specific word, but a punctuation mark. It was pointed out to me at a writing retreat last year that I need to ‘kill the exclamation mark.’ When I looked into it, I was appalled by how often I used them. I did, indeed, have a bit of a fetish going on. Hopefully, I’ve managed to keep them to a minimum in this blog post!

 

What is the piece of advice you’d most like to pass on?

There are variations on these words, but it boils down “don’t wait for your boat to come in; row out to meet it”.

It’s something I wish I’d taken on-board (if you’ll excuse the pun) earlier in my life. It can, of course, relate to all aspects of life, but with regard to my writing, it translates into this: Don’t let time slip away from you.

I’d wanted to write all my life, but always I made excuses: “no time, children to look after, piles of marking to get through, got to work late, too tired”. Even when the children were teenagers and didn’t need the same level of attention, even when I had an unexpected year of not having to work full time, always I seemed to have an excuse for actually sitting down and doing it.

I was 50 before the realisation struck that I needed to heed this advice – when it almost felt too late. I’d had a recent run-in with cancer, which led to a couple of rather unpleasant years, and as my milestone birthday approached, I started to re-evaluate my life. If I didn’t get my act together and produce a book sometime soon, perhaps I would never fulfil my lifelong dream?

It would be another year (2013) before I finally took the plunge into publishing my first novel. The story had been seven years in the making, for all the aforementioned reasons, but I did it.

It had still been a challenge. I was working full time, long hours, and any writing time was limited to weekends and holidays (thankfully I have a very patient and supportive husband, who would hoover around my chair at weekends as I sat at the computer, or read the paper in a pub when we were on holiday as I scribbled away at scenes in my notebook).

In more recent years, having moved to Switzerland and no longer having a day job, I have had the time to write, but still I procrastinate. My New Year’s Resolution this year was to treat my writing like a job, not a hobby, and I’m improving, but there’s a way to go yet.

So please don’t do as I do, do as I say: don’t let the time slip away from you!

 

Cassandra has published two historical romances and has co-written and published a contemporary cosy mystery/romance. She is currently working on a series of contemporary feel-good romances set in Cornwall. She loves traveling, reading, cats and dry wine and splits her time between Switzerland, where she lives with her husband, and England, where she lives with her characters.

 

https://cassandragrafton.com

BUSINESS OF BOOKS: FIRST, LAST, EVERYTHING – MAGAZINE FICTION WRITER WENDY CLARKE

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My very first piece of writing advice wasn’t from a writer or about writing but it was advice that would one day help me in my writing career. I was twenty-two and had just taken up my first teaching position at a junior school with open-plan classrooms divided only by bookcases. Being very new to teaching, and still finding my feet (or my voice, if you like), I was always looking for ways to make my teaching more effective. In the classroom area next to mine was a more experienced teacher who, because of the way the classrooms were laid out, could easily be heard. I was impressed with her control of the class and the attention the children gave her. Realising it was something in her voice (her tone, her inflection, her choice of words) I decided that if I copied her style of teaching, I too would achieve success. How naïve! Of course, it was a disaster – a bit like being on stage and being cast in the wrong role.

Back in the staffroom at break time, the teacher I’d been trying to copy could tell something was wrong. When I told her what had happened, she was very kind, sitting me down and making me a coffee before telling me that no two teachers taught in the same way and the children wouldn’t expect them to. In time I would find my own voice. One that I felt comfortable with. One that would be true to me. When I started writing for magazines, I remembered this advice. I didn’t try to copy the style of any other authors, I just wrote stories I loved – in my own way. My first sale came quickly and I have that teacher to thank!

The most recent piece of writing advice I received was from the writing community on social media. It was during a period when I had become disillusioned with the long and tortuous road you needed to travel in order to get your novel published. With magazine writing, you write a story, sub it, forget about it and start on another. There is no middle man (the agent) and, because I have several stories being considered at one time, it feels as though things are always happening. With a novel, you submit to agents and then wait, sometimes many months, for the inevitable rejection. Even if an agent requests the full manuscript (which happened to me six times) it can be months before hearing anything… if at all. In fact, I am still waiting. The readers of my Facebook post heard my sorry tale. Their advice was to submit directly to the publishers who accept manuscripts without the need of an agent. I did and it’s the best advice I could have been given.

Finally, the piece of advice I’d like to pass on is easy. Be kind to yourself. Set reasonable goals (if that’s the type of writer you are) and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t manage to achieve them. Also have breaks from your writing. If I go on holiday, I leave my writing equipment behind. The rest recharges my battery and helps me put my writing into perspective. This doesn’t mean that my brain isn’t still working behind the scenes though. Often, when I switch off from writing, an idea for a story, or the answer to a difficult plot problem, will float into my head as if from nowhere. Writing isn’t something to be forced but to be enjoyed and, if it isn’t, maybe it’s time to ask ourselves why we’re doing it.

 

Wendy Clarke has had over two hundred short stories, and two serials, published in national women’s magazines such as The People’s Friend, Take a Break Fiction Feast and Woman’s Weekly. She lives with her husband in Sussex and has just finished writing her debut novel.

 

https://wendyswritingnow.blogspot.com/