Monday 28 January 2013

Special Offer for you!

For a few days my third novel, Shades of Appley Green, comes to you at a very low price, so now is a good time for you to get your Kindle copy, if you haven’t already.  It is not free, as I am not sure that this is a good way for authors to go. If we continue to devalue our books, I hate to think where this could lead. Even authors have to eat!

I am also visiting a few blogs to give you a few choice titbits and tips that may not have been seen before. 
SPECIAL OFFER Amazon links UK   ow.ly/hacOr  USA   ow.ly/hacOs
Love a Happy Ending:  What Inspires Fictional Characters? http://loveahappyending.com/re-launch-of-shades-of-appley-green/
Anneli’s Place: Drop By for a Cup of Tea in Appley Green http://annelisplace.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/appley-green/#comments

JLB Creatives Blog: A Tricky Interview! Resulted in all kinds of revelations and pictures. http://jlbcreatives.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/meet-miriam-wakerly.html#Kindle

Michelle Betham's blog - sharing a few (perhaps surprising) romantic moments: http://michellebethamwriter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/meet-author-miriam-wakerly.html
I hope that this SPECIAL OFFER will help reach out to more readers, wherever you are! If you could click the Tweet and FB buttons below that would be much appreciated!

When you have finished reading it, if you have time to ‘review’, I would love to read what you think on Customer Comments!

Monday 7 January 2013

I Did it My Way - Chris Longmuir


Now we are going to indulge in a bit of crime. Award winning author, Chris Longmuir is here all the way from Scotland! Hurray!

I often wonder how authors get into the darker side of life but am cautious about asking. However, today all is revealed :

Says Chris, 'I’ve been a reader since I started school and discovered books. I read all sorts and at one time tried to read my way through the local library. Needless to say I didn’t quite manage it.

My introduction to crime came when I was about 13 or 14 and someone gave me an Agatha Christie book which was my
introduction to Hercule Poirot. After that I read everything Christie wrote from Miss Marple through to Tuppence and Tommy – who remembers them? I also read some pretty awful thrillers written by Hank Jansen – I later discovered Jansen was a variety of writers, one of whom was Bob Monkhouse!

Then there was my horror phase – Bram Stoker, James Herbert, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, I read them
all. Funnily enough I also liked historical sagas – Catherine Cookson, Margaret Thomson Davies, and several others. However, my first love was always crime, and I progressed from the cosies of Christie through to the darker writing by Val McDermid and Mo Hayder. Mustn’t forget the American authors though. I particularly like Jeffrey Deaver, Harlan Coben, and Michael Connolly. I could go on and on. I actually think it’s my avid reading of American authors that influences my crime books because I find their style a lot pacier than British novels.

When I started writing it was with a historical saga and I entered this in the Romantic Novelist’s Association’s (RNA) New Writer’s Scheme. They liked it so much they gave it three readings and placed it with a publisher. Unfortunately my timing was off because that was the year sagas went out of fashion and publishers were getting rid of their saga writers. However, it is now published as A Salt Splashed Cradle, and doing very well, thank you.

But having been rebuffed with my saga I turned back to my first love, crime writing, and now have two crime books published and a third almost complete. The first one that was published was Dead Wood which was actually book two in my Dundee Crime Series, and it won the Scottish Association of Writers (SAW), Pitlochry Award, as well as the Dundee International Book Prize. Book one in the series, Night Watcher, which was published later won the SAW Pitlochry Award as well.

The only thing I find more enjoyable than reading crime books is writing them. Long may it continue that way.'  
 
Indeed Chris - a popular genre and probably always will be. I have just read A Salt Splashed Cradle so far, Chris's historical saga book, and I found it a really good read, with a wonderful setting. It is a book to curl up with and let it take you to another place.

Find out more about Chris and her books here:


Chris Longmuir’s website:- http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/



Thursday 3 January 2013

A Gentle Reminder

There has been much talk about Shades of Appley Green in recent months and perhaps some of you would like a simple reminder about my first two novels, also set in the village of Appley Green. They are connected but each one stands alone. You could read either one first.

Will uprooting herself from London to live in the English countryside help Kay escape guilt-ridden memories of her husband’s death? Far from finding a quiet life, she is caught up in an age-old village conflict where passionate opinions on Romany Gypsy Travellers divide the local people.

A young woman, Lena, enters her life, unwittingly putting Kay’s plans on hold. Kay struggles to not only come to terms with her emotional past but also to resolve Lena’s problems, those of the village and the Gypsies. And another relationship blossoms that she would never have dreamed of … 

Two years have passed since Kay successfully campaigned for the Appley Green Gypsy Site, and four years since her husband was murdered. Life in the village was going so well, until the phone call and letter. Then comes the disastrous site opening. Worst of all, Dunstan, whom she realises is her best friend and ally, is giving her the cold shoulder for some unknown reason.

Dunstan is taking an emotional trip down memory lane, into childhood as a Gypsy on the road, and his eventual break from his people. Why is he so angry with Kay that he keeps away from her? Chances of a longed for reconciliation look slim …
The two books had many lovely reviews in addition to those on the Amazon web site. I will give you just a couple, for now.
I spoke on BBC Radio Oxford – it was a programme called The Write Lines hosted by broadcaster and writer, Sue Cook. She later read my two Gypsy books.
 “Few of us even try to understand gypsies and their way of life. Our knee-jerk reaction usually goes no further than ‘not in my backyard’, as I discovered first hand when a family of gypsies arrived in a village near where I live last year. The immediate reaction among the residents was a mixture of alarm and resentment.
In Miriam Wakerly’s Gypsies Stop tHere  and its sequel No Gypsies Served  it’s refreshing to see gypsies portrayed as individual people like the rest of us, making their way in life the best way they can. Reading this compelling story brings home the fact that it’s perfectly possible for gypsies to be accepted successfully into our communities.

Wakerly’s books do a wonderful job in helping to promote understanding where there is ignorance and tolerance where there is bigotry. I recommend them heartily.”

 Scarlett de Courcier found me in a Waterstones shop one day and hhere’s what followed:
(Click here!) Bohemiacademia
(Extract)
Gypsies Stop tHere gripped me from the first page and carried me all the way through to the end on a wave of ‘I don’t want to put this down’. And then I picked up No Gypsies Served and had the same feeling all the way through that one.”

Scarlett even placed my two books as her 2nd best choice for 2010 and, boy, has she read some books, and, oh yes, she can be very critical of books sometimes!
“Really, really important books. Really, really beautifully written. I think they should be on every school’s curriculum.”

Maybe you would like to give Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served a try and, if you like them, add your own comment on Amazon. That would be amazing and I will look out for what you have to say!