A Far from Conventional Convention.

Stuart Aken was invited by his publisher, Fantastic BooksPublishing, to attend FantastiCon 2015 to sign copies of the hardback edition of his science fiction novella, The Methuselah Strain. The event took place over the weekend of 24/25^th October in a hotel on the banks of the River Humber. As Stuart spent a good deal of his youth in the village where the hotel is located, it was something of a treat for him to return. He gives a full account of the event on his blog, highlighting the benefits of attendance for a writer. You can find that piece by clicking here.

The unexpected mountain and does it matter?

Most publishers (in my experience anyway) ask for some input from the author on the book cover although they retain the right to a final say. I'm happy with that. Marketing and covers are more their area than mine. The exception for me has been the US market. I get no say at all. I don't even get to see the covers until I receive my author copies of the book. Is that a problem? Not for me. Every cover has been spot on. Here are the previous ones:

Ok, it's not a problem for me, but should it be?

Those moors look like the wrong end of Yorkshire, and that castle is certainly the wrong bit of Scotland and the white cliffs of ... ahem ... Withernsea... but you know what, in each case the scene and the mood are just perfect. These people are actually reading my books! They must be or they'd never get the covers so completely spot on. And now number 4 has arrived. Here it is:

Again we see the rolling hills of the famously flat East Yorkshire coast, but just look at that water, the hanging mist, the boat, and the wonderful colours on the lamp. It's the essence of the book in a single image. Do I care that I get no say in these covers? Not a jot.

CLICK HERE for the Annie Raymond mysteries

A Fantastic Showcase for Hornsea Writers

Next week FantastiCon 2015 lands in Hull, lights flashing, space ships circling, aliens and androids descending. Get a feel for the event by watching the TV advert HERE. 

It’s an international event, and Hornsea Writers will be there.

FantastiCon is a huge Sci-Fi / Fantasy extravaganza featuring actors and writers from Dr Who, Star Wars and Elite: Dangerous. As well as an array of virtual reality experiences, full-sized Daleks, live gaming and an indie cinema, attendees will see five books launched.

Dr Who actor, Simon Fisher-Becker, is releasing the first volume, My Dalek has a Puncture, of his 3-part autobiography with an exclusive version of his one-man show. Keeping him company will be Hornsea Writer Stuart Aken who will be launching the hardback edition of his novelette, The Methuselah Strain.

The other launch books, two fantasy tales and one Sci-Fi are The Boy in Winter’s Grasp, Till They Dropped and Shadeward: Emanation.

The works of Hornsea Writers Penny Grubb and Linda Acaster will be featured at the Fantastic Bookstore within the convention.

CLICK HERE for details of FantastiCon.

Hull Book Fair

The Hull Book Fair was held on a Saturday in mid-September. An initially rainy day cleared up in time for hordes of readers to pour into Hull’s central library to feast their eyes on the best of local writing.

The Fair was opened by Mike Ulyett and Library Services Director, Michelle Alford. 

Hornsea Writers’ stall was sponsored by Fantastic BooksPublishing. 

The picture shows (L to R) authors Madeleine McDonald, Ann Wilkinson, Sylvia Broady and Penny Grubb standing behind their collection of 28 different titles – books from Hornsea Writers themselves plus recent publications from local publisher Fantastic Books. The stall featured crime, fantasy, paranormal, saga, autobiography, historical and writing guides. 

A Shameless Demand for Your Hard-Earned Cash!

I'll be uncharacteristically brief. I took part in the Great North Run last Sunday. That's a run of 13.1 miles for those who don't know. I'm 67 and undertook the run to raise funds for the charity that helped me defeat the pernicious condition commonly known as ME/CFS, from which I suffered for 10 years. Now recovered, which in itself is an unusual event, I wanted to give something back to the community that supported me. So, please visit my blog here to discover how you can gain a free eBook as a reward for your generosity. A look at another post, here, will give those of you who are interested full details of the run itself (it's a long post). But, if I've caught you at your most busy and generous, you can bypass it all by simply going to my JustGiving site here and donating a couple of quid, dollars, euros, or any other currency you happen to have on your person.

Thank you for you attention and your generosity.

Three books at a time

Hornsea Writer Penny Grubb recently found herself reading three books at once and wondering how this came about. The books were a crime novel, an autobiography and a romance. 

In the normal course of events Penny would put these genres in order of preference as first the crime, second the biography and lastly the romance. In the case of this triple read, the order upended itself and became romance, crime, then autobiography. 

The reasons were varied, touching on a doctor demanding a cigarette on a hospital ward, a peer of the realm being not quite as irritating as he might have been and a rather clever mirroring of a favourite classic. Follow this link for more detail of Penny’s take on Sayers, Tennant and Bard.

WRITERS' VILLAGE AWARD

Madeleine McDonald was one of only five writers shortlisted in the summer 2015 Writers’ Village short story competition. The competition is run twice a year and attracts hundreds of entries from across the world. This summer’s crop produced three winners, with a further five shortlisted and ten highly commended.

One reason the Writers’ Village competition attracts so many entries is that the sole judge, author John Yeoman, takes the time and trouble to provide a short critique of each and every entry.

The Writers’ Village website offers writing courses as well as an entertaining blog. 

www.writers-village.org    

Horses for Courses: Residential writers' courses - April Taylor's view.

I have been back from the Swanwick Writers School in Derbyshire for almost two weeks now. In those two weeks, I have mused on the advantages and disadvantages for any writer attending one of these courses, using my experience of the Writers Holiday in Wales two years ago and the Writers School in Swanwick.

There will be those writers who do not feel they need to spend the £500 (ish) for a week of being looked after and not having to concentrate on anything but writing. Good luck to those. My feelings are that, even the seasoned published successful writer can come away with something new from a writing week experience.

Writers' Holiday, Fishguard

Swanwick Writers School, Derbyshire







If you would like to read more about my thoughts, go to my blog here:
www.apriltaylorauthor.com/blog

You can find more information about April Taylor here:

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Fascinated by History - Isles of Orkney

 

Linda Acaster has embarked on another short series of research blogposts taking in the northern isles of Orkney and Faroes, sitting out in the Atlantic Ocean north of Scotland.

[Research, eh? A likely story...]

Her intimation is that too many historical novels tend to dwell within their own time periods as if nothing existed or left its mark on the novel's 'present' and its characters.

She starts in Orkney, concentrating on the Neolithic megaliths that pre-date Stonehenge. 

Orkney: Vast Skies & Standing Stones

Orkney: Skara Brae Neolithic Village
Faroe: Mountains, Fjords & Vikings