Tuesday 22 May 2018

Are you an Independent Author?

I saw this beautiful Blog today from Annie Whitehead and I am blushing girlishly. If you are an Independent Author, you too might like to take a peek.

Click here please

Monday 21 May 2018

West Yorkshire SPECIAL - Hebden Bridge and Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings.



I am more than delighted to include in  my West Yorkshire theme,  Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings

What makes this book special is that it is set in Hebden Bridge.



Hebden Bridge is a market town which forms part of Hebden Royd in West Yorkshire, England.




Not only is the location perfect for my Yorkshire them, but nine authors have written beautiful stories set in this mill town.



So, please  help yourself to a glass of bubbly and then settle down to meet my lovely guest, Helen Fairfax who will tell you all about the authors and what to expect from, Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings




A few years ago a group of us northern romance authors began to meet up in Hebden Bridge. This town is conveniently located for us all near the border between Yorkshire and Lancashire, and a handy meeting place for both sides of the Pennines. It’s also a lovely place for a day out. As well as being a picturesque old mill town, surrounded by stunning hills and moors, Hebden Bridge also has a fab selection of cafés and cakes – which suited us all!

One day we were chatting over lunch (tea and cake may well have been involved again :) ) and we realised that between us we’d written a wide variety of romance novels. The eight other authors in the group are all writers whose books and short stories I’ve read and loved. When I suggested us collaborating on an anthology together, I was absolutely thrilled when they all threw themselves behind the idea with enthusiasm.

And so our anthology, Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings, was born!
As we talked over our ideas for stories, we knew we needed a common theme to hold the collection together, and we decided Hebden Bridge would make the perfect setting. It’s a beautiful town, and the perfect location for a romance, as you can see from the photos. We’ve fictionalised our town and called it Haven Bridge in our stories, but Miss Moonshine’s Emporium and many of the other scenes in the anthology are all recognisable locations.

As I mentioned, besides myself there are eight other authors in the anthology, and we all live in either Yorkshire or Lancashire. Here’s a little bit about all of us!




Melinda Hammond is a West Country girl by birth but has lived for 30 years in the Yorkshire Pennines, writing her award-winning romantic historical adventures. She also writes as Sarah Mallory for Harlequin Mills & Boon. Find out more about Melinda  







Jacqui Cooper lives on the edge of the Yorkshire moors, which means she doesn’t have to look far for inspiration for her writing. Her short stories regularly appear in popular women’s magazines, including Woman’s Weekly, The People’s Friend and Take a Break. Writing has always been her dream and she is thrilled to now be able to do it full time.







Marie Laval  is originally from Lyon, but  now lives in the beautiful Rossendale Valley in Lancashire, where she writes contemporary and historical romance with a French twist. Her latest romantic comedy, bestseller Little Pink Taxi, is published by Choc Lit. Find out more about Marie



Helen Pollard had a vivid imagination as a child. Fuelled by her love of reading, she started to create her own stories in a notebook. She still prefers fictional worlds to real life, believes characterisation is the key to a successful book, and enjoys infusing her writing with humour and heart. Find out more about Helen






Angela Wren is an actor and director at a theatre in Yorkshire, UK.  She loves stories and reading and writes the Jacques Forêt crime novels set in France.  Her short stories vary between romance, memoir, mystery and historical.  Angela has had two one-act plays recorded for local radio. Find out more about Angela



Sophie Claire writes emotional stories set in England and in sunny Provence, where she spent her summers as a child. Previously, she worked in marketing and proofreading academic papers, but now she’s delighted to spend her days dreaming up heartwarming contemporary romance stories set in beautiful places. Find out more about Sophie


 Kate Field writes contemporary women’s fiction, mainly set in her favourite county of Lancashire, where she lives with her husband, daughter, and hyperactive cat.
Kate’s debut novel, The Magic of Ramblings, won the Romantic Novelists’ Association Joan Hessayon Award for new writers. Find out more about Kate



Mary Jayne Baker is a novelist from Bingley, West Yorkshire. Since her debut in 2016, she has published four romantic comedies with two publishers, HarperImpulse and Mirror Books. Her latest, A Bicycle Made for Two – set in Yorkshire against the backdrop of the 2014 Tour de France – was published in April 2018. Find out more about Mary Jayne


And here’s a bit about me…!

Helena Fairfax is a freelance editor and author. Her novels have been shortlisted for several awards, including the Exeter Novel Prize and the Global Ebook Awards. Helena lives in an old mill village on the edge of the Yorkshire moors with her husband and their rescue dog, Lexi. Find out more about Helena


And here is a little bit about our Miss Moonshine:

Miss Moonshine’s Emporium of Happy Endings

Sometimes what you need is right there waiting for you...
Miss Moonshine’s Wonderful Emporium has stood in the pretty Yorkshire town of Haven Bridge for as long as anyone can remember. With her ever-changing stock, Miss Moonshine has a rare gift for providing exactly what her customers need: a fire opal necklace that provides a glimpse of a different life; a novel whose phantom doodler casts a spell over the reader; a music box whose song links love affairs across the generations. One thing is for certain: after visiting Miss Moonshine’s quirky shop, life is never the same again...
Nine romantic novelists from Yorkshire and Lancashire, including best-selling and award-winning authors, have joined together to create this collection of uplifting stories guaranteed to warm your heart. This intriguing mix of historical and contemporary romances will make you laugh, cry, and believe in the happy-ever-after.




Available from Amazon in print and as an ebook. Buy link: http://mybook.to/MissMoonshine
Release date: 18th May 2018



I hope you’ve enjoyed our introduction to Miss Moonshine and Hebden Bridge. Thank you for having us, Pauline! x



Thank you Helen, and everyone involved, for sharing your wonderful book and how it all came about. I hope it flies of the shelves. I am away to get my copy...

 Thank you also my wonderful visitors and friends for stopping by. Please call back again to see what else is going on here. Until then, have a fabulous day and I hope the sun is shining on your face and in your heart.

Pauline

Brought to you by Storm Clouds Gathering
set in a Yorkshire Mill town in 1965




And

Chill Awards for Independent Authors


Monday 7 May 2018

West Yorkshire Published - Suzi Stembridge




My West Yorkshire theme continues this week with author, Suzi Stembridge, talking about her wonderful journey as a writer. and her best selling books. So, please help yourself to a glass of bubbly and then settle down to meet my lovely guest…



Writing was probably something I always wanted to do, little books made in my post-war childhood still exist, very childish by today’s standard, but I remember sitting on the top of the bus coming home from college with stories buzzing in my head. One of my first jobs was working for an editor of a Motor Racing magazine, working at the European Grand Prix. and he would encourage me to write filler pieces and I was thrilled when I got other articles taken up by other magazines. I began to write fiction seriously in my thirties, as the children were growing up, with the help of a library of books, a dictionary, a Thesaurus, absolutely no internet to help with historical facts in those days, and I pride myself on the bibliography at the back of most of the books! Perhaps the Open University course I was taking at this time inspired this!

As with my protagonist, Rosalind, in 1960 I landed in Athens as an air hostess and fell in love with the heat, the air, the scent and then the country. It was here, when we finally retired from running my tour operation businesses Greco-file & Filoxenia, (helping people to visit unspoilt and unusual places in Greece), we built a small house in Arcadia, 700m from the Aegean Sea on the Peloponnese and then I began to write seriously.


After several false starts CAST A HOROSCOPE, the story of another air hostess, (not me, for goodness sake!) finally made it to Kindle in 2011, quickly followed by BRIGHT DAFFODIL YELLOW, 







THE SCORPION’S LAST TALE and finally 
THE GLASS CLASS. 

These four books created the COMING OF AGE QUARTET, they had been swirling around in my head for a very long time. Then I broke my leg in 2003 and an enforced a rest, from the business I founded and ran, encouraged me to make all four independent stories into the beginning of a family saga. Eventually, with THE GREEK LETTERS QUARTET, I took this one family back into the early nineteenth century and called the series of eight novels JIGSAW, as, although each book stood alone, they and their characters fitted together. 








I have since written an illustrated children’s book THE PUPPY WHO DIDN’T LIKE RAIN which appeals to adults as well.






Jigsaw has four main protagonists. Samuel Carr who as a 20 years old in Greek Letters Volume 1 “Before” makes an impulsive decision to travel to Greece just as the Greek War of Independence is coming to an end, imagining that this heroic journey will both make his fortune as a liquorice farmer and establish his manhood in the eyes of his brothers. By Volume 2 “And After” he is already a father and about to embark on his second marriage but it is his third marriage to the daughter of his Greek friend that establishes the Anglo-Greek dynasty which holds the Jigsaw together.




His great-granddaughter Helene, mother of Rosalind the second main protagonist, relates her own childhood in Volume 3 “The Eyes Have It” and as a beautiful young woman she sets off to find her Greek cousin and together they experience a huge adventure in the remote and high Pindus mountains.







Volume 4 “Much More Than Hurt” is as much Rosalind’s story as she ages along with her ‘Second Great Love’, the third protagonist along with their son, the fourth protagonist. Intertwined stories of relatives and friends create excitement and mystery and bring not only the Greek Letters Quartet to a close but also the whole series Jigsaw. Yet this book stands very much on its own as each of the characters battle to make their way.








The Coming of Age series with “Cast a Horoscope”, or “Doors to Manual”, introduces Rosalind as a twenty-years-old who finds herself as a rooky air hostess in Athens, then exploring the Greek islands in 1960. Her adventures and traumas around the Mediterranean leave a lasting legacy - her son Andrew.








In “The Scorpion’s Last Tale” it is the teenage Andrew who steps in to rescue a family innocently holidaying on Corfu which has fallen foul of the Colonels’ regime, the Junta in 1972/74. This nasty story is of the age.






In “Bright Daffodil Yellow” Rosalind’s heart-throb is on the run in Northern Cyprus at the time of Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974. What or from whom is he running? Can he remain incognito? With tragedy at Portmeirion in Snowdonia, walking on the bleak fells in the Lake District this book, as so often in series Jigsaw, pits sudden horror against intense beauty. Nothing is more unexpected than the Moorgate tube disaster or the pain of reconstructive surgery.






“The Glass Class” again set in the late 1970s wraps up the twentieth-century characters as they realise that they can’t set alight West Yorkshire, Snowdonia or even the Greek island of Spetses; and middle age brings certain responsibilities but with so many unexplained deaths are they facing something or someone more sinister?

Not surprisingly the books are all partly set in Greece, particularly mainland Greece and the Peloponnese. (Before 1974 the whole island of Cyprus was considered Greek). There is a strong Welsh and Yorkshire theme, where I still live with my family, in some of the books with north-west England and Southern Europe generally featured in the Greek Letters Quartet. Still concentrating on my genre of historical fiction there is often a thrilling or criminal twist in the books with blackmail often driving the plot.

It is frightening that many of the books set in the mid-twentieth century, and written from diaries have now become historical or social fiction in their own right!

The eight books when taken together I believe trace an age, which neatly fits from the time of Jane Austen to the era of the first computers and mobile phones with the first part of that era being a time my ancestors would have recall to, through their elders, and the latter part when young people have no conception how to manage without Facebook.


Twitter: WriterOfGreekNovels@zaritsi
  Suzi Stembridge@SuziStembridge

Facebook: Suzi Stembridge
Pennine Writers & Landscape Artists Capturing Greece
GREECE IS THE THEME
Jigsaw: Greek letters & Coming of Age – Two Quartets
Pavlov: The Springer Spaniel@thepuppywhodidn’tlikerain

                     suzistembridge.wordpress.com

Linkedin: Suzi Stembridge at Freelance Author and Writer

The Open University: BA. Hons (OPEN)

Member of the Institute of Journalists: M.C.I.J



http://amzn.to/1nKE5wR Full Amazon page co.uk

http://amzn.to/1pfOulj Full Amazon page.com 

http://amzn.to/1wSkZXZ GREEK LETTERS VOL 1 ‘Before’



Thank you Suzi for sharing your wonderful books and writing journey with us. Thank you also lovely visitors and friends for stopping by. Please call back again to meet another amazing author. Until then, have a fabulous day and I hope the sun is shining on your face and in your heart.

Pauline

Brought to you by Storm Clouds Gathering




And

Chill Awards for Independent Authors

Thursday 3 May 2018

Chill Awards Announce Changes for Independent Authors




May Newsletter 2018 is out and a there are changes for authors with small Independent Publishers...



As from 1st May I am delighted to announce that Chill Awards is again accepting submissions from
Independent Authors who are with small Independent Publishers.***

The decision is made after many emails received from authors who are with small Independent Publishers and want to be considered for Chill's prestigious Award. 

Chill's view is that Independent authors write great books. So if a book is well written, keeps the reader turning the page and has strong characters, then we want to read it.

*** Please note that as with all submissions, Chill Awards has the final decision if a book is accepted or not.

You can catch up on all Chill Award's news by clicking here


Thank you for stopping by and I hope the sun is shinning on your face and in your heart.

Catch up again soon.

Hugs
Pauline

Tuesday 1 May 2018

West Yorkshire Published - Andrew Barrett





My West Yorkshire theme continues this week with best selling author, Andrew Barrett, whose books will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. However, for now, try sit back and meet Andrew.




A little about your books.

Twenty two years ago I began work here in West Yorkshire as a CSI, and not long after I picked up my badge, I picked up a pen and began writing A Long Time Dead, the first in a trilogy of crime thrillers featuring a CSI (SOCO as we were known back then) called Roger Conniston. Another two books, Stealing Elgar and No More Tears followed.



I’m very proud to say that Roger’s books are still selling very well today, A Long Time Dead having floated past the 150,000 downloads mark a year or so ago. Recently, someone said that one of the sub-plots to the trilogy wasn’t entirely wrapped up. So I’ve been thinking about writing a fourth book – stay tuned for more news on that one.



By 2004 I decided to write crime fiction featuring someone who was on a different level entirely to Roger’s. He was much more acerbic, much more violent even. In walked CSI Eddie Collins and his first book, The Third Rule came to life. Several more Eddie Collins books followed, Black by Rose, Sword of Damocles, and Ledston Luck, and two short stories, The Lift and The Note.




Eddie’s books became so popular that publisher Bloodhound Books grabbed the entire series. Once they’ve gone through another edit, they will be re-released in the summer. And I hope that Eddie’s latest book, provisionally entitled The Death of Jessica Ripley will be out in the autumn. I’ve also written a standalone thriller entitled The End of Lies, and enjoyed the process so much that there’s another simmering in the background, soon to be written.




What inspired you to set your stories in Yorkshire?

I’ve lived in Yorkshire all of my life (except for a brief spell while working in Kuwait), and love the place. I love its diversity, and I love its raw beauty, its extremes, and the calming effect it has on me. It has everything one could possibly want; from bustling cities like Leeds to remote hillsides in the Dales, dense woodland, quaint villages, and stunning coastal regions. Yorkshire has it all.

Because my books are crime thrillers, I’ve set them all in and around Leeds, but do like to include in them small villages around south Leeds. Ledston Luck was my latest Eddie Collins book, and I chose it as a title and location because, less than three miles from Leeds, it’s a silent countryside village with a wonderful and proud history.


A few words about yourself and about living in Yorkshire.

My fiancé and I went to Milan last year. We stayed for a long weekend and although it was delightful (some wonderful architecture), we were relieved when we could see the Yorkshire skyline again. I adore living in the UK’s largest county. I adore our family days out at one of its many splendid stately homes such as Temple Newsam or Lotherton Hall. This year we’re going to invade Harewood for a change. If it’s awe inspiring history we’re looking for, we head down to Kirkstall Abbey.

And when the coast beckons we head straight for Whitby or Filey for the scenery and the friendliness of the locals. And if we’re looking for somewhere remote, we have a special affinity with the Dales, Swaledale being one of our favourites.

I spend a lot of time working in the centre of Leeds, and I know it very well. It has matured over the last ten years quite significantly, and it’s still growing today – probably quicker than ever before. There is a natural rhythm to Leeds, a buoyancy in the city that’s carried proudly by its communities. It’s a delight to live and work among them.

Links.

A Long Time Dead

Stealing Elgar

No More tears

The Lift

The End of Lies


Social media links. Andrew Barrett





Thank you Andrew and thank you, dear friend, for stopping by. Please call back again to meet another amazing author. Until then, have a fabulous day and I hope the sun is shining on your face and in your heart.

Pauline

Brought to you by Storm Clouds Gathering




And

Chill Awards for Independent Authors