Beverley Folk Festival

The 2016 Beverley Folk Festival was held the weekend of 17-19th June 2016 on Beverley racecourse.

It is a packed annual festival of music, dance and crafts, with a diverse array of hands-on workshops from ukulele playing, to step dance; harmony singing to working a potter’s wheel. And as befits a quality festival, it also features a wide selection of superb freshly cooked food from a variety food stalls.

This year a new section was launched. Words on the Westwood brought poets and authors together to give readings and talk about their work. One of the invited speakers was Hornsea Writer Penny Grubb, who said of the event, ‘It was awesome. This was the first time we’d been but it won’t be the last.’

Holiday Reading Afloat?

 

Is bigger automatically better?

Not where libraries in cruise ships are concerned. Contemplating an article in the Washington Post recently, on her own website HERE Linda Acaster adds her two penn'th on holiday reading afloat. 

Does a cruise ship's clientele use, or even need, a ship's library? Shush. The answer might be more old-school than you think.

Reviews for A Shackled Inheritance

    

A Shackled Inheritance has received 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. I was really pleased that all reviewers highlighted the historical context of the story. One reader confessed to looking up certain facts. Yes! That’s just what I do when something I read surprises me, or offers me a different perspective on historical events, whether the book is fact or fiction. When researching A Shackled Inheritance, I often had to drag myself away from documents written by real people 200 years ago, in order to return to my fictional characters.

    In different ways, my characters are all imprisoned by the existence of slavery and the norms of society in the early 1800s. The gulf between owners and slaves was unbridgeable, and it is not surprising that free persons of colour did their best to deny their African heritage and claim the same privileges as the ruling planter class.

    We like to think of slavery as something that is over and done with, a vile system that ended 200 years ago, a system we can afford to forget when we finish a book. Yet slavery still exists. Some organisations estimate the number of human beings held in conditions comparable to slavery to be 30 million worldwide. Modern serfdom comes to our notice now and then, when a brothel is raided in a quiet country town, when gangmasters are found to have forced vulnerable adults to work on building sites, or when an outwardly respectable couple are found to have confiscated their maid’s passport and made her sleep under the kitchen table. In 2016, there is even a UK helpline to report suspected slavery. Wilberforce must be turning in his grave.   

Unaccustomed As I Am - Talking About Our Books

This week member Linda Acaster is being interviewed on one of the local radio stations - for an hour. 

The proposed questions have arrived and top of the list is Tell listeners about your books. 

As Linda says, "I have nine titles published as ebooks, four of which are also in paperback, these straggling across five genres ranging from Horror to Historical. This doesn’t include the short fiction or non-fiction articles. How can I condense that into a soundbite?" 

How indeed? Check out her blogpost HERE as she wrestles to do the question justice.

The Mechanical Engineers of the Writing World

It’s obvious to a reader when a book isn't working, just like it’s obvious to a driver when a car breaks down. It’s not a matter of understanding what’s going on under the bonnet, the very fact of being stranded at the roadside is clue enough that all is not well. And it’s the same with a book. 

I’m sure you know the feeling. The story begins to grate, to be irritating rather than intriguing. Or it simply falls flat. What should on the face of it be a dramatic scene – a fight at the top of a cliff perhaps – completely fails to thrill. Just like the driver, the reader doesn't need to know what’s going on under the bonnet, but for the writer (as the mechanic) it’s a different matter.

These kinds of nuts and bolts of writing were discussed in a series of short articles and on line exchanges at the very busy 48-hour launch of the Writers’ Toolkit a few years ago. Three extracts are linked here:

A story that should have the reader at the edge of their seat simply irritates the hell out of them – which part needs replacing? 

The story limps along when it should be racing – how to tune the engine? 

All repairs done but are they perfect – can the car go back on the road? 

The full on line Writers’ Toolkit launch is available on Facebook. 

Researching Ad Infinitum?

Stuart Aken says he has finally reached the end of his research for his science fiction novel set on Mars. But is it true? In the post at the end of this link (click here), he provides a thought-provoking slice of writing life on the possible perils of research.

Are you doing too much?

Is it stopping you from writing?

Marketing - In Person

Linda Acaster, Madeleine McDonald & Penny Grubb
Karen Wolfe holding the iPhone

Most marketing and promotion is done online these days, but when an opportunity is offered for a more personal approach members believe it should be grasped with both hands. 

Such was today's event in Hornsea aimed at highlighting the diverse groups and societies the town has to offer - and the hall was filled to overflowing.

Taking it in turns to man our table, we chatted to attendees, discussed writing and reading, sold paperbacks, acquired a couple of prospective members, gave out lots of book postcards and flyers - titles/summary, website & Facebook details to the fore - and we networked. 

The value of networking at events such as this cannot be underestimated. Other societies meet regularly and many are eager for new speakers. Seeing us and our books in person created an immediate bond. Contact details were duly exchanged and every side wins.

Are there similar events in your neck of the woods? Do not let them pass by. You never know what seeds might be sown.

A Plea for Help and a New Anthology Alert!

My current WIP is in need of some assistance. I’ve posted a small piece on my blog, requesting input from readers and writers to stimulate my fast shrinking grey matter to produce some apposite expletives to replace those that are inevitably religiously based. Head over to my blog, here, to lend this failing brain a hand, please.

On a more positive note, I was asked some time ago to contribute a short story to a new science fiction anthology. Since it was for my brilliant publisher, Dan Grubb, of Fantastic Books Publishing, I was happy to oblige. By coincidence, Dan was also about to publish the ebook version of my scifi novella, The Methuselah Strain, as a hardback print book and we both thought the occasion called for some added value to the original. I combined both features by writing a new episode for the novella and then converted that event into a standalone short story for the new anthology.

The anthology, Synthesis, a collection of 27 science fiction stories from many different authors, has now been published by Fantastic Books Publishing. You’ll find a review of the book, together with a buying link, by clicking here.

Introductory Price for A Shackled Inheritance

For a limited time, the Wild Rose Press - www.wildrosepublishing.com - is offering the e-book version of A Shackled Inheritance at the introductory price of $3, instead of $5.99. For the price of a cup of coffee, the reader gets a few hours enjoyment, and an escape from the cares of the daily life. 

However, I trust my publisher’s marketing strategy. The company has been in business for almost ten years and won the Best Publisher award in the Preditors and Editors readers’ poll in seven of those years. In today’s market conditions, a publisher cannot rest on its laurels. Thanks to digital publishing and print on demand, a tidal wave of new books hits the market, day after day.

  

As in an old-fashioned second-hand book shop, how is a reader to distinguish between the good, the bad and the indifferent? So publishers push special offers, in the hope that readers will recognise quality and come back for more. Like it or not, discounting is here to stay.