Mentioned in dispatches

It was the highlight of a particularly difficult week (husband/heart bypass/complications/long story) when I found out that The Indelible Stain was one of the books chosen for the Editor's Choice in The Bookseller's first ever Independent Author Review.

It was thanks to fellow author Alison Morton that I heard the news and learnt that her book Successio had also been listed, as well as those of three other SilverWood authors - Lily Forbes's memoir Growing Up Under the Mango Tree , Elisabeth Marrion's historical novel Liverpool Connection and Thomas Saunders's autobiography Getting a Life

In the introduction to her review, Caroline Sanderson said the 18 books she'd chosen represented some of the best available, praised the quality of editing and presentation, and declared them to be "written with a flair equal to anything on the list of a traditional publishing house".

In the subsequent #FutureChat on Twitter, the subject of professionalism amongst indie authors was discussed and the importance of producing a quality book.

In the comments afterwards, author Jane Steen made the point that it would be nice to get to the stage where books in general could be judged as "good books" without the need to make the distinction between "trad" and "indie".

I'm sure that day will come eventually. After all, as Alison Morton said during the chat, it's readers who ultimately are the judges. Invariably they care little about which publishing camp the book comes from, so long as they've enjoyed reading it!



(P.S. And in case you're wondering - sorted/on the mend/home soon)

Inspired by mysteries

My online friend and fellow writer Georgia Rose commented, after reading my Family History Secrets blog, that I must have endless patience to do all the research involved.

I had to admit that it's as much to do with addiction as it is perseverance! Plus, being as my Esme Quentin Mysteries are inspired by genealogy, any trawl I do has the added incentive of me inadvertently stumbling upon a  brilliant plot idea!

Georgia confessed she'd be frustrated if she couldn't find out what she wanted and it's true that it's disappointing when I hit the proverbial brick wall and have to abandon a trail without achieving a result.

But there's always another mystery on the list to investigate. Or, as new records are being made available all the time, I might return to those questions I've not yet answered to see if information has come to light since I last searched which might give me that longed-for breakthrough.

Over the years I've discovered the answers to numerous intriguing questions and, although some remain stubbornly elusive, I'm hopeful that one day I'll uncover the truth about those too.

Questions such as:

• What happened to my great-grandfather when he 'disappeared' after the 1881 census?
• Why did my great-aunt run away from home in 1904, aged just 16, and tell her employers she had no family?
• Who was the mysterious spinster to whom my husband's ancestor secretly left his estate and not to his wife?
• Why did my husband's great-great grandparents travel to Australia in 1868 and why did they not take their children with them?
• Who was the father of my illegitimate great-grandfather?
• Who was the mysterious half-brother to my great-grandfather who I discovered on someone else's family tree?
• What happened to my great-great-grandmother when she disappeared, leaving her illegitimate son behind with her parents?
• What happened to my husband's ancestor after he was convicted of theft in 1831 and sentenced to 14 years transportation? 

Why not pop over to my familyhistorysecrets blog and find out which of these mysteries I've solved and which I'm still working on? 

And if you have your own family mysteries, either solved or unsolved, I'd love to hear about them.

And then there was cake!

Some while ago someone posted a photograph on Facebook of individual cupcakes on top of which were little mini-books made of icing.

Yes, this really is a cake!

It was such a fantastic idea that I decided I'd like to do something similar when the new Esme Quentin novel,
The Indelible Stain, was published.

My cake making skills aren't up to anything as detailed as individually made folded mini-books but there are simpler options, which can be just as effective.

And so, this weekend at the official Launch Party, we had a Book Cake!

Set in the middle of the table, it made a striking impression as everyone arrived.

I hadn't realised how far the concept of edible icing had come. There are several companies who have the facility to print a copy of any photograph you care to send them with edible inks on to a thin icing layer.





All set. Now pop open the Champagne!   


The printed image arrives through the post (and, in our case, extremely promptly from Cake Topper Designs) in a sealed polythene bag and, if required, keeps for up to 6 months.






When your cake has been iced and you're ready to position the image (not too early, or it will dry out and crack before you get it in place), you remove it from the bag, carefully lay it on top of the cake and smooth it into place. Brilliant!







 

 

Never trust a woman with a glass of bubbly in one hand
and a knife in the other. Especially a crime writer!



When I lifted the knife to make the cut (in true crime fiction style), there were comments that it was a shame to cut it up.

 

Not an idea which persisted for very long, though, once everyone realised they'd then not be able to tuck into the cake underneath...

 

 

...which as the evidence shows, they did (with the rest given out in doggy bags).

 



Many thanks to all those who came along to celebrate, eat cake and buy a book!

 

 

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And to those who weren't at the launch and want to find out more about The Indelible Stain, click on the image on the left or below for all the details.

 

 

 

 





What a difference a win makes

I was browsing through some old copies of Writing Magazine recently (part of my ongoing clutter-clear burst!) and came across an article entitled, What a difference a win makes, dated 2004.

The magazine had followed up previous winners of some of their writing competitions to find out what had happened since their win. There were eight winners mentioned, and I was one of them, having won the Summer Ghost Short Story Competition in 2002.

The general consensus amongst the eight, was how much of a boost to a writer's self confidence it was to win a competition and how it inspired them to keep writing. So, with it being 10 years since the article, I began to wonder what the rest of the winners had been up to since the piece was published and set about googling the names...

Faye Robertson was one of the eight I contacted. She'd won an Adult Fairy Story competition which, she said in the article, had given her a marvellous boost to her career. Since her win she'd gone on to have three further competition successes and had short stories accepted in Woman's Weekly and People's Friend. Well, Faye certainly hasn't rested on her laurels! When I got in touch, she told me she'd had over 25 books published, some with digital first publishers, some indie published.

"I mainly write romance under the name Serenity Woods," she said. "I also write epic fantasy as Freya Robertson (via Angry Robot Books) and I won the NZ Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel earlier this year."

You can read more about Faye, who lives in New Zealand, on her Serenity Woods website, along with information about her books and her alter-ego, Freya Robertson, who she mentions above.

Another winner who's been writing furiously since, is Jo Franklin who'd had two winning stories published in Writing Magazine - Science Fiction and Crime. Jo has also been busy; writing short stories and articles, as well as novels, one of which, Cytherea's Island, is due out shortly. You can find the details of that and more, on her website.

As I was drafting this post, I learned of the death of David St John Thomas, the founder of Writers' News, from which Writing Magazine evolved. It was his vision to create a source of guidance, inspiration and support for those of us who wanted to travel the writing journey but didn't know where to start. Thousands of writers have benefited from both publications, learning about the craft of writing and connecting with others with similar aspirations.

Jo said that DSJT, as he was often referred, had been a source of inspiration to her ever since she won those two competitions.  She told me, "Over the years I have kept in touch with him, sending him some of my stories published in various women’s magazines and getting nice replies."

Faye summarised things nicely by saying, "I love Writing Magazine and definitely believe my successes there (I also won the Open Poetry Competition) gave me the courage & confidence to continue to submit."

I'll second that! Thank you, David. And thank you to all those who continue his legacy by producing a great magazine for the aspiring writer.

Nora Batty stockings and a dash to the altar

I've just finished reading Millions Like Us, by Virginia Nicholson, which chronicles the lives of women during WW2 (read my review here).

It's a fascinating account and the result of meticulous research. The women's recollections range from the horrific to the amusing and everything in between.

It's easy to understand the famous clamour for nylons with the arrival of the GIs, when you learn that the only alternative to silk stockings (which had become almost impossible to get hold of) were those made from cotton lisle, more suited to socks than stockings.

Not only were these less hard wearing than silk, not to mention ugly, (I suspect Nora Batty knew a thing or two about them), they were impractical too. Apparently, when washed they would take up to three days to dry!

On a more uplifting note, there's the lovely story of Eileen and her RAF fiancé Victor. It was the eve of their wedding day and Eileen had gone to meet Victor off the train at Kings Cross, only to find that all leave had been cancelled. She returned home distraught, convinced that the wedding would not now take place.

But her brother and Victor's we're not so easily deterred. They borrowed a van, hared off to Victor's RAF base in Cambridge and "kidnapped" him, returning to London at break-neck speed to meet Eileen at the church for the ceremony. Wedding completed and following a hasty toast to the happy
couple, they chased back to Cambridge and smuggled Victor back into his base before he was missed!

The heart warming end to the story is that Victor survived the war and the couple went on to enjoy 49 years of marriage.

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The next Esme Quentin mystery, THE INDELIBLE STAIN, is out soon! 

For the latest news and to be the first to hear about offers and giveaways, sign up HERE.

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Written the novel - now for the blurb!

With the manuscript of the new Esme Quentin novel currently being copy-edited (exciting news of that coming soon!), I've been focusing on writing the blurb. Always a challenge!

The word 'blurb' is said to have originated in 1907 when a young lady, the fictitious Miss Belinda Blurb, was pictured on the dust jacket of a book at a publishing trade event, apparently shouting out the merits of the book. She was said to be 'blurbing'. The term stuck.

The trick with a book blurb, of course, is not to give too much away, while hooking the reader into the story.

A good blurb shouldn't be too long winded and should only offer a taster of the story, rather than a plateful.  There's nothing that turns me off more than a rambling summary of events in the first quarter of the book. And I lose the will to live if I'm not completely grabbed by the first sentence or two. 

While browsing my bookshelves for inspiration (something you can't easily do with a kindle, it has to be said!) I came across this example.

"What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died? That she was beautiful. And brilliant. That she loved Mozart and Bach. And the Beatles. And me." 

The blurb (and opening lines), of course, to Erich Segal's Love Story, published in 1970.

Segal had originally written it as a screenplay but it was rejected by the main studios as being too sentimental. It was suggested that Segal write it as a novel instead. It proved good advice. It spent a year in the New York Times' hardback bestseller list and sold tens of millions of copies, helped no doubt by the movie of the same name, which came out later that same year. 

The book is only 127 pages long. Erich Segal said of it, "The average person takes an hour and a half to read the book. The movie lasts longer." That can't happen often, if ever!

Love Story has a special place in my past reading list. It was the first book I ever read which made me cry. A lot.

To smile or not to smile, that is the question...

A recent article by Jill Dawson in The Author, raised the subject of the author photograph. Should an author take on a serious expression in order to present a "professional" image?

But it seems readers prefer their authors to appear "friendly" and therefore a smiling photograph is more fitting.

Being a writer of mystery/crime fiction, as opposed to romance or even light-hearted 'cozies', my inclination was towards a neutral expression, not one of me grinning from ear to ear. But when I went to have my author photo taken my husband and the photographer colluded in flattering me into agreeing to smile.

Now while engaged on social media sites, I cringe at seeing my smiling self looking back at me whenever I post a comment on Facebook or Twitter. And there are times when the Cheshire cat look is embarrassingly out of place, such as when posting a downbeat message or responding to sad or distressing news that a friend has posted on Facebook.

Perhaps, just as when Facebook gives a choice of thumbnail (or none) when sharing a link, they could devise a system where we could opt for our happy, sad or neutral selves to accompany our comments, as and when appropriate. Molly Mouse demonstrates below...

Standard pose

Serious pose

Sad pose