Book Signings have Changed!

How quiet can quiet be?

You may know there are new rules for book signings in Waterstones.  Basically, your slot is limited to two hours and authors must not ‘approach’ customers in the shop but wait politely, mute, like Victorian children, until they are spoken to first! In place for a few months now, book signings are, unsurprisingly, fewer than they have been in recent years.  It can be daunting for an author who is not famous, and it gives the impression that CEO James Daunt is really wanting only celebrity names that will attract queues of ‘fans’.

After more than 35 signings over the years, this was my first signing event under these regulations and it was so quiet I was preparing for an early bath.  I sat for a while in peaceful, reflective mood; after all, what else could I do? Contemplating the Mothers’ Day display, with its Baking Moulds and Janet and John fridge magnets, and the table with an assortment of Kindles, I was inwardly sighing at how things were not what they used to be. What lovely conversations I used to have!

Then I left my post in order to purchase a book upstairs (you’re curious perhaps; it was ‘Wedding Etiquette’ to assist me and my family in getting it right on my daughter’s special day). As I returned, there was a lady looking through my books. It was @CamObserved who had spotted me on Twitter! It turned out our children went to the same school and we had a mutual friend … This delightful person bought Shades of Appley Green and I decided to stay a little longer, still behaving immaculately – apart from my sign, which was a tad wicked I suppose.

'THIS AUTHOR DOES NOT BITE! - PLEASE APPROACH!!'

I ended up signing almost as many books as I might have done by chatting in the old way to likely and unlikely suspects alike. (If charity mugging is chugging, what is book mugging?) A lady came up to me very excited to see Gypsies Stop tHere and No Gypsies Served  –  her adult daughter always said she would like to try the Gypsy lifestyle for a while, so both books were bought for her daughter’s upcoming birthday. I had a lovely chat with a man who used to work with Travellers in Southwark and then a man from Aldershot considered my books thoughtfully and, after I had filled him in with a little background on each one, he bought all three.  It would have been unseemly to hug him and splash wet kisses upon his cheeks and, fortunately, I managed to stop myself in time.

All in all, I did not go home hoarse from talking for maybe four hours to customers who had come into the shop either with a precise purpose or to browse. I was surprised, but maybe this is the way to go after all!

I am not so daunted by Daunt as I was.

PS Big thank you to all in Camberley Waterstones!

I Wrote It My Way - Nicky Wells

My exciting and effervescent guest author today is a rising star, a self-confessed rock 'n' roll chick. She is - drum-roll, please - Nicky Wells! I do love to host a rich mix of writers and if you take a look back at previous posts where writers reveal how they arrived at 'their way' of writing, you will discover a veritable medley, a pot-pourri for your delectation.

So, opening with a keen musical reference, as you would expect from a rock-star, let us tune in to Nicky's story:

'Well, Frank, I certainly did! To begin with, I wrote Sophie’s Turn for me, and only for me. Therefore, I wrote it about me, or rather, about things that I’d always daydreamed of doing, or of happening to me. Unsurprisingly, I put a great deal of me in the book. Sophie’s love for rock music and rock musicians; her occasional clumsiness and ill-advised comments; her humour, excitement and spark… those are all very ‘me’. Writing was a way to bring out all the bits of me that I kept hidden or was too shy to share. 

And there’s also a lot of me in Rachel, Sophie’s best friend, she with the scathing humour and the caustic tongue. I’d love to be able to be Rachel in real life; carefree, self-assured, glamorous and outgoing.

The subject matter of Sophie’s Turn, the fairy tale element (world-famous rock star fancies the girl next door) has appealed to me ever since my Grandma introduced me to the stories of the brothers Grimm, and it’s the same aspect that makes romantic comedies such as Notting Hill such a hit in my world.

And yet Sophie’s Turn is more than a romance. It’s not just chick lit. There is a strong element of travel in the story; probably not enough to justify labeling it as a travel book, but enough for almost every reader to comment on Sophie’s journey. Speaking of journey, Sophie’s Turn is also about self-discovery. Sophie has some very difficult decisions to make, and they don’t exactly take her where she (or the reader!) expected.

People who know me tell me they can hear me in every one of Sophie’s utterings. Or Rachel’s, for that matter. So I think it’s safe to say that yes, I wrote it my way…'

It is always interesting to hear how much of a writer is in his or her characters. Many of us hotly deny this, but clearly for Nicky this is what makes Sophie so real! Thanks so much Nicky.

Sophie’s Run is now available in Kindle edition from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, and in Paperback edition from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. You can also get the paperback at Barnes & Noble, or download Sophie’s Run onto your Nook (coming soon).

The Shard

View from Millennium Bridge

On 1 February The Shard opened its 72^nd level to the public, offering unique, breathtaking views of London; I was lucky enough to be up there the following day, on Saturday afternoon.



 

Situated in Southwark, central London, The Shard is the tallest building in UK by far, (and Europe), almost 1/3 of a kilometre high in total (309.6 metres, 95 storeys); the gallery with The View is 244 metres from the ground. Our son, who lives just a five minute walk away, has seen it grow in the three years it took to construct; an amazingly short period of time.

Globe Theatre on banks of Thames

Looking down, it is hard to believe Southwark was once the first London ‘suburb’, from Roman times. As you gaze out to the horizon, the vastness of London is jaw-dropping, yet the elevation makes London’s famous landmarks, such as the London Eye/Millennium Wheel; The Gherkin; The Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge and so on, seem dwarfed.

 

It is especially pleasing to see how, through careful planning, St Paul’s Cathedral still stands proud, well away from London’s taller towers. The famous vista from Richmond Park to St Paul’s has been preserved through history.

Tower of London, HMS Belfast

I could simply lift the ‘Fascinating Facts’ and history of Southwark from the Official Guidebook but that seems wrong for so many reasons. I will, instead, tell you a little more about our special day and something about it that I recommend.

In the morning, my husband and I went to The Museum of London, close to The Barbican (St Paul’s tube station); not so well known, perhaps, as the South Kensington Museums (National History, V & A and Science). With its treasure-trove of displays and artefacts it shows how London developed since ‘the beginning of time’. Having absorbed as much as my brain could hold, and walking with what our family calls ‘museum-legs’, we took a brief pit-stop at our son’s flat before our Shard experience. Now we would have a bird’s eye view of what we had seen as marshland and meadows aeons ago. However familiar you may be with the streets and sights of London (as we are), this visit complements ‘The View’ perfectly.

It was good to be reminded there of some major historical events: Roman Britain ended in 410 AD; the original St Paul’s was built in 604AD, destroyed in 1087, its replacement, the mediaeval St Paul’s, completed 1320, with wooden scaffolding it fared badly in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and finally we have the magnificent Sir Christopher Wren cathedral we have today. Did you know the London booksellers stored their books and documents in the crypt and thus they were all destroyed by the fire? The even greater event was the Black Death or Plague that swept the world, and killed half of Londoners – then around 40,000.

Quirky things caught my eye:  a ‘Fuddling Cup’ and a ‘Porringer’; excavations near the Rose Theatre, one of the four famous Shakespearean theatres, revealed 16-17 glazed earthenware ‘Money-box tops’ (for holding the takings; 1 or 2 penny tickets) from the Surrey-Hampshire border. Appley Green land!!  

Looking up!

Back to The Shard. Fleetingly, I did have this slightly weird, vertiginous moment as we stared out at the sunset – perhaps, if everyone does this at the same time, I thought  … thinking of the famous Millennium  ‘’wobbly” (now rigid, be assured) footbridge spanning the Thames, that swayed to the rhythm of life crossing it.



Now The View bathed in rosy sunset glow



 



Out next tall building destination, later this year, is The Burj Khalifa, Dubai. I have seen it before, just the worm’s eye view. Heights and I do not always get on well, but so long as it is enclosed, like the Shard, and does not sway in the wind, I shall be fine!

 

From a place near ‘Appley Green’, Waterloo Station is only 35-40 minutes away and The Shard is just a couple of stops on the Tube, Jubilee Line to Southwark or London Bridge.

See it being built: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-11900363

 

 

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   http://ow.ly/hacOr   USA   http://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!

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/

blog:-  http://chrislongmuir.blogspot.co.uk/

 Amazon UK Author’s Page

Amazon US Author’s Page

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.

Gypsies Stop tHere on Amazon as paperback and Kindle

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 … 

No Gypsies Served on Amazon as paperback and Kindle

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 2^nd 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!

In Defence of the ‘Christmas Letter’

Oh dear, the festive ‘round robin’ has taken a real beating from Lynne Truss’s wit and irony this week on BBC Radio 4. You may have heard. In response, I’d better watch my ‘p’s and ‘q’s. Was that correctly punctuated, Lynne?

She made me smile and a small part of me feels some sympathy with her.  Yes, they can be full of accounts of family achievements and no, they do not really take account of the individual recipient’s feelings as much as they should.  If the lucky person receiving a Christmas letter has had a bad year, then of course the last thing they want to hear is how wonderful life is – I mean, truly perfect, children, family, house, health, finances, everything in top-notch order – for someone else.

However, I did send my ‘Christmas letter’ to many people – not all, I must stress – on my Christmas card list. There, I’ve said it. I’ve confessed.  I am that self-satisfied, supercilious, self-important person that apparently all round robin senders are – according to the wonderful (isn’t she just perfect?) Lynne Truss.

So, in defence of my despicable and persistently annual missive I would just like to say:

I was on the brink of going one better, sending out a note to inform all and sundry that this would be our last year for sending Christmas cards, as they do seem very not on-trend amongst trendy people, who would never use the word ‘trendy’ it’s so last century. I did not actually do this; so my point scarcely lends any weight to this debate but, you see, it made me think – always dangerous at this time of year. Some people (mentioning no names) would forget such a note by Christmas 2013 and would assume we had died. Then our children would doubtless get endless phone calls, texts, emails and letters enquiring about our deaths. How could we be such a burden to our children before our actual demise?

There are certainly people whom we have not seen in, possibly, 50 or 60 years, to whom I annually send best wishes and festive goodwill. Perhaps my husband knows who his 3rd cousins twice removed are (What is this? http://chaplinspeaks.hubpages.com/hub/What-Is-a-Second-Cousin-Twice-Removed-Chart-Explains-All  ).  I am exaggerating but I am not entirely sure what faces belong to which names, even though it behoves me, and always has done, to send them a card. Doubtless they would be quite upset if they did not get a card from us after all these decades. I do not send these distant people a letter.

At the other end of the spectrum there are friends whom we quite possibly saw last week, or a few times during the year. They do not need a letter to update them on the progress of our family.

There is a mass of folk in between though, who do not use Facebook, Twitter or even email that much.  They would scoff at the word ‘blog’. Yes, such people (perfectly nice and normal) exist and I do send them a letter because it is a good way to keep in touch. It is within the bounds of possibility that we may one day meet, call them or visit them when up north or they may drop in to see us if they are down south. Thanks to our yearly exchange of news we would not have to start from scratch with birth of children or grandchildren.

I confess I would not do well if quizzed on the content of Christmas letters past, received from others. You see, we all adopt the manner of skimming – we are quick to spot words like ‘heart attack’, ‘wedding’ , ‘divorce’ or ‘grandchild’. Other things like, ‘holidays … blah … blah … blah …’ we may read but would probably not commit to memory unless we could relate to it or it provided useful information for our next planned trip.

Do our adult children exchange Christmas cards? Probably not. They keep in touch with friends much more efficiently than we ever did at their age, with the wonder of electronics. But we old die-hards like to cling on to the old ways, I suppose. There is a childish delight in hearing the slap of envelopes is they plop onto the hall floor. My husband and I still try to be first to pick them up and have the pleasure of opening them. If there is a letter inside, we are usually pleased – unless it really is one of those that go on and on and on … then I am with Lynne Truss all the way. Too much information gives round robins a bad name.

I tend not to mention too many negatives in my Christmas letter – because, quite frankly, who wants to hear about problems and failures at Christmas? If that means it comes across as smug or just too unbearably cheerful, then I make no apologies.

Merry Christmas – I shall now shut up until next year – but please, do let me have your thoughts. Do you, or don’t you?