How I got published Dougie Brimson

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Back in 1995, I had an idea for a book about the culture of football and after working on it for a while with my younger brother, started to think about how we could get it published.
Dougie BrimsonNever having written anything before, and not knowing any other authors, I walked into W.H Smiths, picked up a football book and wrote to the publisher who happened to be Hodder-Headline.

After a week or so, they wrote back and asked for a sample of our work and so we sent them 3000 words and waited. They came back and asked for some more and so we sent them another 3000.

This went on a few times and in the end, I said to them ‘either you want this or you don’t. If you don’t, then let us know and we’ll try someone else.’
Dougie Brimson
Within a few days, they’d made us an offer to publish which included a nice advance. It was only about a year later that we realised that it didn’t work like that for everyone.

The book was called Everywhere We Go. It was published in early 1996 and was a massive success. So much so that it kick started a career which has resulted in a further 16 books, sales of over 1,500,000 worldwide and being lead writer on three award winning feature films with more on the way.
Ironically, despite all that success, I’ve never been able to find an agent to take me on so have ended up doing it all myself.
www.dougiebrimson.com

Joffe’s new books this week will be great to curl up with, and might I suggest a box of chocs and coffee to go with them

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Joffe’s Book of the Week:  Get the Evidence by Jodie Lawrance

Detective Helen Carter: A detective out of uniform but straight in the line of fire.  Moira McKenzie returns, from her lover’s home, to find her abusive husband washing his hands of blood.  Terrified, she uncovers yet more incriminating evidence in the form of keepsakes and newspaper cuttings from old murder cases.

When the police arrive at their home, there’s no trace of Moira to be found . . .

Spine-chilling crime thriller – which might have you hiding behind the sofa but buy it first at 99p/99c

                        

Come to Harm  by Catriona McPherson   99p/99c

Three teen girls are gone. Everyone says they ran away, but Keiko, a newcomer to the small Scottish town, knows there’s more to it.   Her flat is above the butcher’s shop and she can’t help but feel highly suspicious of the widow behind the counter. Where are the girls disappearing to, and will she be the butcher’s next victim?

Constable along the Riverbank. by Nicholas Rhea £1.99

Constable Nick has his sights set on a promotion. But what if that means leaving his happy moorland home behind? How will they get by without their dependable local bobby in Aidensfield?

“It’s original, it’s funny . . . one of life’s little pleasures.” Yorkshire Post

The Hanged Man by Linda Mather  99c/99p

While meeting her boss for their weekly glass of wine and a catch up, Jo Hughes stumbles across more than she bargained for. It’s Seb, the college financial director, hanging from a branch.

What could have driven him to this? Jo isn’t convinced that Seb killed himself. But the question remains, if he didn’t — who did?

Now, an exclusibe cover reveal of The Abberley Beach Murders

D.E White’s brand-new crime thriller is coming this autumn and there is great excitement amongst the team at  Joffe Books who offer  a sneak peek at what’s to come. (Frost Magazine admires Joffe’s covers so much, and this is pretty close to the top of the range… Seems the book is  a crackin’ read too.)

DC Dove Milson is called out to a gruesome murder scene. Four bodies have been found after an escape room went horribly wrong, leaving the victims submerged in seawater and drowning as the tide came in. A tragic accident or is someone out to kill?

Interested? Well, you’ll have to wait  until September 7th to find out more. It will be worth it.

THE ABBERLEY BEACH MURDERS by D.E. White

To find all Joffe Books: HERE

Internationally recognised and locally loved: b-side Festival showcases artwork you won’t see anywhere else. Isle of Portland, Dorset Thursday 9th – Sunday 12th September 2021

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Taking place on the intriguing Isle of Portland in Dorset, this year’s b-side Festival will bring new and unique art to resident audiences and visitors. With an exciting, playful and challenging programme led by Southwest-based and international artists, this spectacular four-day event celebrates the island’s environment, folklore and heritage. 

 

This year, b-side Festival has commissioned 14 new, unique artworks exploring the concept: ‘Common Lands’. The artworks on display will address pertinent issues concerning peoples’ right to public land, the power of community, and shared ownership of space through sensitive and often unexpected artistic methods.

 

Aiming to ignite thought-provoking discussions, this four-day festival will feature showstopping light

Please find the b-side website here: for more information:   https://b-side.org.uk/

The Follower by Nicholas Bowling reviewed by Annie Clarke

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This is not a run of the mill thriller. Rather it hovers between reality and other dimensions. Not science fiction, but – what? Perhaps faith, or a reaching for something ‘other’ but is what is found the answer?  Read it and see. Believe me the pages will be turned rapidly…

Anyway, The Follower probes into the 21st century fascination with happiness and the ideas we choose to worship.

When her twin brother goes missing in Northern California, Vivian Owens follows his trail to the town of Mount Hookey, home to the followers of Telos: a mountain-worshipping cult that offers spiritual fulfilment to those who seek it.

While trying to navigate the town’s bizarre inhabitants and the seductive preaching of the initiates of Telos, Vivian will have to confront questions about herself, her family, and everything she thinks she knows about the world.

She quickly realises that her search is about far more than her missing brother – it is a quest for the secret of happiness itself.

To that end there is only one question she needs to answer: what is really at the top of Mount Hookey?

The follower by Nicholas Bowling. pb and eBook.  ‘Gripping, compelling and otherworldly’ David Quuantick, author of All my Colors and Night Train

 

 

Unstoppable: How to silence self doubt and turn up your power by Bridie Walker.

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Self Doubt seems to stultify many people, and here is a short cut to working it out of your system.

Bridie Walker has shared in Unstoppable how to silence  self doubt and turn up your power. Crikey, the Amazon ladies are on the move.

Bridie asks if you’ve ever felt your life is scripted and you are playing a starring role where you have no control over what actually happens?  Perhaps the harder you try the further you fall as if somehow life has a hidden agenda?

In Unstoppable, Bridie Walker shows you how to take control of your life and teaches you how to create and reinvent yourself, your way.

Bridie uses her own experiences at overcoming failure and tragedy eventually  beating the odds that seemed stacked against her. It teaches you how to create an Unstoppable Mindset, build Unstoppable Confidence and achieve Unstoppable Success.

For details of this book, go to www.bridie-walker.com where you will also find details on all her courses and coaching packages.

Frost Magazine’s favourite homebaked bakery, Williams of Preston, has been telling us their latest news.

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Such a wonderful cup of tea today at Chez Graham with Williams’ oat biscuits dipped in chocolate. Dick has his dipped in white chocolate, I had milk chocolate. Then we had to try one another’s. Well, of course we didn’t have too, but we simply needed too. And very tasty, gorgeously so,  they were.  Should we have a further test, run it again in other words? No, really, that’s too piggy.

I felt forced to to catch up with Williams Homebaked to tell them how much we had enjoyed the biscuits, oh, and the shortbread, and on and on.  During the conversation they told Frost Magazine of a story of another of their fabulous local stockists.

Based in Samlesbury, Huntley’s is a farm shop that prides itself on being the place where quality matters. The large  site is made up of a collection of small independent businesses, including a tradiitional butchers, a delicatessen, bakery, wine merchant, fishmonger, ice cream parlour, and to top it all off, an antiques shop and furniture shop

 

Is that it? Well not quite. There is also a fantastic team of chefs at the onsite restaurant who take pride in delivering locally sourced, seasonal dishes.

Williams Handbaked told us that that they had recently been chatting with Angela, the Managing Director of the Food Hall, who has been at Huntleys for 18 years.

Williams: What’s your favourite part of the job?
Angela: I love chatting and getting to know our customers, especially those who only discovered us through the pandemic, wanting to shop somewhere local but without the stress and crowds of a supermarket. Many of those who found us then have become regulars here. Apart from that, my favourite part of this job is when we have stock deliveries! I really enjoy replensihing the shelves, moving stock around and displaying them as well as we can. I also love it when we introduce a new line that sells well.

Williams: Whats the ethos of Huntleys?
Angela: When we first opened 18 years ago, the idea of a farm shop or food hall was something people hadn’t really heard of. As we continued to stock local produce, such as meats and cheeses and baked goods, and we could explain to our customers about the provenence, it really took off. And we’ve continued with that focus!

Huntleys is open 7 days a week.

huntleys.co.uk

huntleysfoodhall@gmail.co.uk
Whalley Rd, Samlesbury, Preston. PR5 0UN
Tel: 01772 872811

Do NOT forget to have a look at the treats provided by Williams Handbaked

A Narrow Door by Joanne Harris Book Review

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Joanne Harris is one of our greatest novelists. It is hard for anyone to argue with this statement and A Narrow Door asserts her place once again.  Such is the richness of her language, and the mastery of her skills as a storyteller, that I could not put this book down. It is such a rich story of suspense and betrayal.  

You will never see the twists coming and they will take your breathe away. This is a stunning and clever book. I suggest you grab a copy as soon as you can, it is sure to be the hit of the summer. This is definitely one of my favourite books of the year. 

From the Sunday Times and internationally bestselling, multi prize-winning author Joanne Harris, comes A NARROW DOOR – an explosive psychological thriller about one woman who, having carved out her own path to power, is now intent on tearing apart the elite world that tried to hold her back . . . piece by piece.

A Narrow Door, Joanne Harris, Book, book review

 

Now I’m in charge, the gates are my gates. The rules are my rules. 
It’s an incendiary moment for St Oswald’s school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls.

Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely forty, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.

But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She’ll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all…

You can’t keep a good woman down.

Available to pre-order now!

A Narrow Door is available here.

 

WELSH WRITING WEDNESDAYS: JANE CABLE ON HER FATHER POET, MERCER SIMPSON

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As I have written in Frost before, my formative years were spent in and around the vibrant Anglo-Welsh poetry scene. Writers such as Tony Curtis, Dannie Abse and Gillian Clarke were taking over the mantle from the Dylan Thomas generation and my father Mercer Simpson was in the thick of it.

First as an expert on the genre – he wrote the section on it in The Bloomsbury Guide to Literature – and a reviewer. Then as poet himself. Except he wasn’t Welsh by birth – he was English, although in the end he lived in Cardiff for the last 55 years of his life. His first – and last – collections were through Rockingham Press in East Anglia, but I think the one of which he was always most proud was Rain From a Clear Blue Sky which was published by Gomer with the help of Welsh Arts Council funding.

Having a poet as a father gives a unique insight into their lives. This is not to say all poetry is autobiographical – it’s certainly not – but my father was very clear that some of his were and there is a section in Rain From a Clear Blue Sky that deals with childhood memories. All this was easy to accept as my father’s past, but when the present reared its head, it could be harder. Or simply incredibly beautiful, like these lines about a rose bush that stood in my parents’ garden.

Fruhlingsgold
shakes her
curling-papered head,
the wind’s
premature blow-drier
scattering news
of dispersed beauty,
the white petals
leaving the golden heart
on each stem…

But there were certainly times when the insights seemed far too close to home and I still find parts of his last two collections difficult. Not just because I helped him to correct the proofs of the last one when he was in a nursing home, dying. It wasn’t a bad time – apart from the obvious – we became even closer over those galleys – and we were able to discuss what was going to happen surprisingly easily.

Six months before the Welsh Academy had put on an eightieth birthday reception for him in the Norwegian Church in Cardiff Bay. For him it was the pinnacle of his acceptance as an Anglo-Welsh poet and I will never forget how much it meant to him. I was more than proud to be at his side as we listened to Tony Curtis, Ruth Bidgood and others read from their own work and celebrate my father’s. And he read himself – of course he did – he had been a lecturer, had even taught public speaking, so he was a consummate performer.

There was a humour in his work, even in the most serious of subjects, particularly in Honest to God, a poem he read that night and I read at his funeral. And pathos too. As the child of a poet, there are times you get to look inside your parent’s soul.

Dear God
I hope I’ve got your correct address:
with so much mail going astray these days I wouldn’t want this letter
to get lost in the post.

I hope you don’t mind me leaving the writing of it rather late
but I felt I had to thank you for letting me stay in your house for so long.
I know I haven’t been the easiest of guests,
stealing your son’s bread and helping myself to his wine…

…Now that my time is nearly over
I insist on having the last word which must be gratitude:
gratitude for the miracle of your world that I, who might have died at birth,
was spared to live in…

…So please forgive me if I seem impertinent
in asking if I may come back and visit you again some time?