Sunday 31 December 2017

Thanks for the Reads and Happy New Year!


We hope you've enjoyed your Year, reading our and other writers' works. We trust you've found some useful advice and interesting snippets from our combined posts.

It's been a productive time for members, completing novels and short stories, trying out new processes and software, and getting to grips with that elusive work-life balance we all need to be able to carry on creative projects.

With the last of the festive drink in our hands, we wish one and all 

A Healthy and Happy 
New Year!

Saturday 23 December 2017

Singing Your Way To Murder

It began with 'Messiah'. It ended with Murder.

Well, it's bound to if April Taylor has anything to do with it. 

Just in time for kicking back and relaxing after the festive fray, April has launched a Christmas short story starring her early music soprano, Georgia Pattison.

The recital at Oxford Cathedral goes well, and there's much glad-handing and smiles as members of the audience mingle with the singers. It's not until Georgia is safely home that the niggle starts, and grows, and becomes an obsession. 

Something is wrong. And no one will take her seriously. Will you?

The Shepherd's Farewell is 99p / 99c or free with Kindle Unlimited.

Saturday 16 December 2017

Writers in Residence to Exhibition Participants

Members showing the laminates
Back in the summer Hornsea Writers participated in the town’s weekend Carnival as part of its new ‘culture’ venture. We took a table in the Artists in Residence marquee, alongside the town’s Art Society and the Photography Club, showcasing our work and explaining how-to… to young and old alike. 

Part of our remit was to roam the site soaking up the atmosphere and allowing ideas to germinate for a joint exhibition of work later in the year. It was a fun, if tiring couple of days.

The month-long Celebrate Hornsea exhibition is currently being staged at a gallery in the Bowls Club where we hold our weekly meetings. That’s the beauty of a small town; venues have multiple uses. Viewable art - paintings and photographs - are displayed on the walls as usual, but readable art needs to be at a correct height and distance for each individual viewer. Mmm…

Have laminator, can exhibit.

The Bowls Club has a cafe; there is a display stand available; we have a laminator. Editing work to fit onto two A4 sides and using our Hornsea Writers banner as branding, it became an ideal way to showcase our talents and for users of the venue to relax with a read and a cuppa. We are very pleased with how it looks and the way it’s been received. Needless to say, there are handy publicity postcards on hand, and each laminate is printed with the writer’s website details.

Perhaps you or your group could do something similar?

Saturday 9 December 2017

Launch: "Torc of Moonlight" Trilogy Boxed Set

There's nothing quite like a digital boxed set to wrap up a series, or in Linda Acaster's case, a trilogy. 

'It feels a bit like the icing on the cake,' she says. 'Long-awaited icing, I grant you, but all the sweeter for it.'

The original idea came while she was writing weekend walks for regional newspaper, The Yorkshire Post. A lot of her stomping ground was in and around the North York Moors - a place of sweeping vistas, Iron Age hillforts, Roman marching camps and stone fortresses. And an awful lot of springs named Lady Well according to the Ordnance Survey maps she used.

From research it soon became clear that the Lady - or Ladies - in question were linked strongly with Pagan beliefs, only becoming an amalgamated, unnamed female entity when locals conflated them during the early Christian period with another powerful female icon, the Virgin Mary. 'However, it's interesting,' says Linda, 'that hardly any took her name directly. Perhaps the local people wanted to keep their waters separate.'

Linda uses the constant flow of the water to link the past with the present in all three novels, choosing for each a university city on the outskirts of the North York Moors and a different historical focus period.

Book 1: Torc of Moonlight - Hull : Celtic
Book 2: The Bull At The Gate - York : Roman
Book 3: Pilgrims Of The Pool - Durham : Mediaeval

Why university cities? Ah, that becomes clear at the end of the trilogy.

For more about Britain's Pagan water goddesses, including an image of silver votive plaques mentioned in Book 2: The Bull At The Gate, check out the post on her blog: White Ladies and Green Teeth.

For more information about the books visit her Website page
Individual titles are available as ebook and paperback.
The Trilogy boxed set is only available as an ebook from:

Saturday 2 December 2017

Ideal Christmas gifts



If you're still wondering what to buy for the last few people on your Christmas list, why not go online or visit your local bookstore and browse paperback anthologies. A selection of short pieces makes a great gift, something to dip into and savour long after the wrapping paper has gone in the bin. Unlike novels, anthologies offer a variety of viewpoints to surprise and satisfy the reader. Whatever a person's interests, there will be a collection to match. For example, as a writer, I have contributed this year to anthologies about cats, railways and do-it yourself. 



Go treat yourself.
Madeleine McDonald.