Media round-up!

Here is a swift round-up of media coverage for my new book Shades of Appley Green now a paperback as well a Kindle ebook, available on Amazon and in Waterstone's

I am proud to be one of 30 selected authors who belong to Love a Happy Ending They are holding an international book event, Summer Audience, in June that happens, by sheer coincidence, to be at my old school in the small town of Tetbury, Gloucestershire (very close to Prince Charles’ Highgrove).

More clear evidence that the  Mayor of Surrey Heath opened the fantastic Waterstone's launch party in Camberley on 14 March!

A surprise reporter also came along from Camberley People She is responsible for the lovely photos – just look at that display of books. Thanks Waterstone’s!

Another surprise reporter from the wonderful, culturally stimulating and informative Glow Magazine. It covers the Windsor area where I did a book signing.

Give your eyes a rest, you can listen to this one!! Surrey Heath Residents Blog podcast If you Search this blog with my name many previous appearances come up, related to Gypsies and Travellers, and my first two books Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served but as you all know, Shades of Appley Green is not about Gypsies.

Watch out for more ...

Waterstone's book launch party!

I’m not sure how many book launches happen these days, but I think it is a fantastic way to mark the occasion that you have produced a new book and Yay! it is now available to buy and read.

About 40 people came along, about the right number for the upper floor of the shop – a bigger crowd might have resulted in wine spillages and all manner of unruly behaviour!

Sophie from Camberley People was a lovely surprise guest and she stayed until the end, clearly taking mental notes as well as photographs. Camberley People   Cath, Camberley Waterstone’s manager, opened the evening and introduced The Mayor of Surrey Heath, Councillor Tim Dodds, who pioneered Surrey Heath’s first Literary Festival last summer.



At Camberley Literary Festival 2011

He spoke very kindly of my books and his blog post appeared promptly the next morning The Mayor's 'report' He also said how important it is to support bookshops in this age of the e-reader. The Mayor’s personal preference is for a book he can pick up and hold; indeed, he was very taken with my book cover. On the other hand, his wife, also at the party, now prefers her Kindle. Opinion is often divided in this way; meanwhile we authors and publishers need to offer our books in both formats, which reminds me I must get around to getting No Gypsies Served on Kindle …

I failed to speak briefly and probably went on for too long!! But I felt I must explain that this ‘modern village novel’, the first of a new series (did I hear ‘Oh no!’ from my husband), has nothing to do with Gypsies and Travellers this time, although it is set in the same place. The style of book cover indicates something new. 



Thanks to Camberley People for photos



As suggested by Cath, the manager at Camberley Waterstone’s, I did a reading and decided on the 'blurb', Prologue and opening of Chapter 1. Another, more random extract, will be appearing on another blog post on Wednesday, 21 March Love a Happy Ending

As someone also representing the local community - for this novel is very much to do with community life - Chris Pitt, Councillor for Frimley Green and Deepcut, also spoke about how he first met me at a Gypsy and Traveller Forum and later enjoyed my first two novels, Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served. A lovely comment he once made in an email: ‘They are amazingly readable, and I tore through each within about 48 hours of purchasing them. Couldn’t put them down wanting to find out what happened.’ There are local plans for a Traveller site up the road from where I live, so these novels are even more topical and of greater local relevance than when first published.

It was all captured on my husband’s movie camera but I’m not sure if this film will ever be released for the general viewing public; something to show my grandchildren, perhaps, in years to come.

This is rather late as I have been frantically busy since last week. A big thank you to everyone there – friends, neighbours, old work colleagues, some people I have never met before. Your support is much appreciated.

Another lovely review of Shades of Appley Green!

For those who have not seen it already, I was delighted to find this lovely review on Lou Graham's Blog You will see she has also reviewed my first two novels,  Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served  and seems to have loved all of them. This lady gobbles up books like there's no tomorrow and I find my books in very good company, so I am immensely proud of these positive comments from a reviewer who had not met with my novels until very recently.
Then she reviewed all THREE of them. That says quite a lot in my book (ha-ha).

Here's an extract from Lou Graham's Blog:

'Miriam writes with a gorgeous flow and a great depth to her characters with her books and whilst they won’t have your windows steaming and champagne flowing, they are very addictive and wonderful to read!
Shades of Appley Green gives you faith in human kindness! Another deeply engaging read by Miriam Wakerly'

Well, I never promised you wild sex and bottles of bubbly, now did I?

Lou Graham is a book reviewer on Love a Happy Ending and Famous Five Plus - both wonderful places for readers, booklovers and writers around the world!

A Time and a Place

Do you like to read books where you can pinpoint the place? Does it annoy you if you cannot tell when the story takes place?

Someone once told me that the year should be left vague so the book does not become ‘dated’. Really? For historical fiction the era is, by definition, essential. To be topical, Call the Midwife is, importantly, true life story of the 1950s. Ian McEwan’s Saturday is a specific day in 2003, and A Week in December (2007) by Sebastian Faulks reflects society as it was then. On the other hand, fantasy or science fiction might be anytime in the future, anywhere, bounded only by the author’s and reader’s imagination.

I can only assume this person was thinking of a particular genre where a book packed with eternal truths could belong to the ‘here and now’, keep fresh for a few years and not exceed its sell by date. But to keep this illusion, so many references would have to be excluded. I struggled with this. Almost always I like to be clear on the time – and the place.

When writing Gypsies Stop tHere I deliberately made it fairly obvious, eluding to Tony Blair and George W Bush for example, when it was written – about 2007. Laws relating to Gypsies and Travellers and relationships between them and mainstream society are pivotal to the story. It presents a snapshot in time; some aspects have stood still, others have changed – like the government! Maybe, as time passes it will mature, not become out of date. As the real-life situation evolves, and perceptions shift, I hope people will be intrigued to see how unbelievable some things were, even five years ago. As it says in the notice that the activist, young Natalie, puts up on Appley Green notice board, ‘How will future generations look back …? Are we any better?’ Think of To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and, more recently, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Since writing this, my first novel, Channel 4’s Big Fat Gypsy Weddings have come and, fortunately, gone; Dale Farm in Essex hit the headlines all over the world; many Gypsies have published their own memoirs. When I researched and wrote this book I had academic studies; real life encounters and a few scarce books to work with (all listed in the Bibliography). We have indeed moved on and I hope that will add to the interest in reading Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served now and in the future.

As for Shades of Appley Green– this is set in the present day, for sure, around 2011. It is not a documentary, it is meant to be entertaining, but again it does reflect some current social issues, the plight of many old folk, the way single parenthood can be a struggle and how traffic can seriously affect the way a village functions as a community. These themes are not the story but do provide the background. In five years’ time all these views of village life may have changed, while human emotions stay pretty much the same.

Of course the location matters! No argument there, surely. Classics like Wuthering Heights, Lorna Doone; Thomas Hardy and Sir Walter Scott and thousands of other writers prove that. With their strong and wonderful sense of place, I like to think of Anita Shreve’s many brilliant novels with their robust setting in New Hampshire, each book set in a different era but often the same stretch of coast, the same building. This adds a whole new dimension to each of her novels, in my view.

I hope to make a series of novels set in Appley Green, where each one will connect with the others. Some familiar characters will pop up. There is a raft of characters in the first one of this series, Shades of Appley Green – after all, it is a village! They have lived curious lives but cannot all be developed in one story and I hope each book will leave people wanting more. That’s the theory anyway! I certainly want to find out more about them which makes me just itch to get on with the next book.

Gypsies Stop tHere is about to be reprinted and is available on Kindle. No Gypsies Served is available as paperback. Shades of Appley Green is a Kindle book will be available as paperback in about two weeks time but can be pre-ordered. All three are set in Appley Green, as it happens.

Gypsies Stop tHere on Amazon       No Gypsies Served on Amazon  Shades of Appley Green on Kindle

First Review of Shades of Appley Green

First lovely review of Shades of Appley Green - Famous Five Plus review by Sue Fortin
Excerpt from Sue's review :

Miriam Wakerly has a lovely, easy style of writing that draws you into the story and keeps you there at a nice pace.  The story touches on difficult issues in a sensitive manner and in a style that is not uncomfortable for the reader.  The end, for me, was very emotional and did, in fact, bring a lump to my throat and tears to my eyes.  A lovely story of one woman’s journey to understanding and accepting her past and ultimately finding an inner-peace  and happiness.

Shades of Appley Green is my third novel and this time has nothing to do with Gypsies.

Shades of Appley Green  available on Kindle now Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com 

Steph is a special, but troubled young woman. Chosen by the most venerated man in Appley Green to fulfil his mission, she feels publicly admired rather than privately loved. She certainly does not trust men!

In helping a once famous, elderly architect with Parkinson's regain a social life, she finds herself taking risks, fending off objections, blind to danger. We wait for the moment when it dawns on Steph what is driving her deep-seated obsession; for only then can she find the happiness she deserves.

Appley Green is a charming English village. Everyone says so. But people are still people. With the emotional turmoil that comes with love, birth and death, a close-knit community can harbour betrayal and guilt, as well as joy and laughter.

What shall I call it?

The title, cover, blurb on the back, author’s name, opening sentence or first page – all these elements can seduce or repel!

Titles may intrigue or even mystify; define the essence of the book; or may seem a little tired or well worn. A title might declare its ‘genre’ and above all should help any potential reader decide if this book is for them! Whether it's on the table or shelves in Waterstones or the Amazon screen, we want those book-loving browsers to stop and look at it.

My first title Gypsies Stop tHere is odd. Yes, I know it is and it’s meant to make people do a double take. The printer thought the file had not been proofread and apparently said, ‘I don’t think we can work with this’. We did laugh about this afterwards but, until I realised what the problem was, my stomach was doing somersaults.

‘Gypsies Stop tHere’ is possibly the shortest synopsis ever! What it means, of course, is the nub of the book – Gypsies are always told to stop over there, never over here.

Its sequel/prequel No Gypsies Served was called many things before I settled for this title. I wanted them to be a pair, to show they belong together although they can standalone. You could read either one first.
I was at a meeting in London with the Irish Traveller Movement, taking notes. The speaker was harking back to hard times when signs such as ‘No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs,’ were commonplace in B&Bs and so on. Another such shocking sign was ‘No Gypsies Served’. I wrote this down and it jumped back at me from the page. I circled round it several times with my pen – I had found my title.

Shades of Appley Green is set in the same village but nothing to do with Gypsies or Travellers. Initially I wrote this in three sections that became A Light Shade, A Darker Shade that went back 16 years into a troubled time for the main character, and finally A Bright Shade. I played with the word ‘Green’ – this being arguably the essence of the British village – and a colour, and colour can reflect mood. This is perhaps over analysing! I was advised that this kind of book should have a chronological sequence of events. Good advice to follow? Not sure. In the end I did and I didn’t! But I kept the title.

I think my mother would have been pleased with this book. We lived in the Cotswolds, she often had her head in a Miss Read village book and green was her favourite colour – I think it must be mine too, it comes in so many different shades.

A new novel for the New Year!

UPDATE! Of course Shades of Appley Green is now available as a paperback too! From Amazon

Waterstones Book Launch in March

'Steph is a special, but troubled young woman. Chosen by the most venerated man in Appley Green to fulfil his mission, she feels publicly admired rather than privately loved. She certainly does not trust men!

In helping a once famous, elderly architect with Parkinson’s regain a social life, she finds herself taking personal risks, fending off objections, blind to danger. We wait for the moment when it dawns on Steph what is driving her deep-seated obsession; for only then can she find the happiness she deserves.

Appley Green is a charming English village. Everyone says so. But people are still people. With the emotional turmoil that comes with love, birth and death, a close-knit community can harbour betrayal and guilt, as well as joy and laughter.'

Launching an eBook prior to the printed version is rather odd. I can but sense your best wishes and imagine the audible cheers as you raise a glass of wine or two! (or cup of coffee ...)

Shades of Appley Green is my third novel and, unlike the first two it has nothing to do with Gypsies or Travellers. It is, however, set in the same village; people seemed to like this place. Readers also told me that they enjoyed the storytelling with lovely clichés like ‘couldn’t put it down’ ‘page-turner’ ‘riveting’ ‘I tore through them’ ‘compelling’ and so on … (happy with comments like that!)

Thus encouraged, I decided to begin a new series of Appley Green novels and this is the first. Each one will focus on different characters with a few popping up in each book. If there is a ‘village genre’ then that description fits; not romance, fantasy, thriller or comic fiction – but I think I can fairly claim that Shades of Appley Green does have a love story, a rich mix of people in a desirable setting, suspense, emotion, psychology and a light humorous style. If that is not the case, I am sure someone will soon tell me! 

Shades of Appley Green embraces social realism - motherhood, money worries, marriage, old age, Parkinson's, birth, death and love but all set in a place where the reader might want to live, for there is a strong sense of community. I think sometimes people like to relate to a story where they find themselves saying ‘I know someone just like that’ ‘That’s exactly what happened to me’ ‘This bit describes how I felt’ and so on. Yes, there are problems and heartache, but I hope by taking readers through the main character’s struggle, they will feel the absolute wonder of her ultimate joy. I make no secret of the fact that the ending is a happy one! It is how she gets there that makes the story.

You can already take a peek inside Shades of Appley Green on  Amazon.com Kindle  and also purchase on  Amazon.co.uk Kindle

I hope you enjoy it - and that this story in my sunny English village may brighten up this dark, wet windy January day.

Best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2012.

PS I feature on  The Famous Five Plus blog and for TODAY Shades of Appley Green is the Book in the Spotlight.