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April 21, 2012
by Peter
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Destiny of Angels

Today, Saturday 21st April 2012, is somewhat momentous. After many months my lovely, lovely mate Wendy, finally becomes “fellow author Wendy Steele” with the release of her cracking début novel ‘Destiny of Angels’.

To mark the occasion you can download ‘Destiny of Angels’ for your e-reader, FREE, for a day or two – but before I tell you how to do that, I persuaded Wendy to take five minutes out of her busy day to answer a few searching questions about the novel, and Wendy Steele in general

1. What’s ‘Destiny of Angels’ about?

Destiny of Angels is about Angel Parsons, who experiences two traumatic events in her childhood. She decides to revisit the scene of her childhood pain and, with the help of her new ‘family’, offer the perpetrators of her distress the opportunity of redemption, rather than exact revenge upon them. She offers them the choices and opportunities to change their lives for the better but only they can choose.

Angel and her partner Aidan, a landscape gardener and former strippergram, enjoy a passionate, strong relationship. The ‘family’ Angel has brought together are Sophia a slim, smart and sassy young woman who runs her own company, carrying on the philanthropic work of her granddad, Maddy a petite, doll-like young woman who runs her own events company, Eli a big, triathlon running hunk who adores women and has a laid back approach to life, Zach a broad, dark, quiet man who runs his own fitness centre and Jed a rugby playing Adonis who runs a security firm and helps Aidan expand his business into vertical gardens.

Angel also meets up with her one childhood friend from school, Jenny, and she and her family play a fundamental part in the story. Angel was welcomed into their family as a small child and so, it is from this experience she bases her belief of what family is.

The story unfolds as Angel’s ‘family’ present the childhood miscreants, Clare, Rob, Tiffany, Justin, Danielle and Vincent, with opportunities to improve their lives and the choices they make, as well as Jenny and her brother Tim, moving forward with their lives.

Angel too, with the help of Lilith, the dark goddess, learns about what really matters in her life and that, all the money in the world won’t bring you happiness if you don’t have love.

2. What inspired you to write ‘Destiny’?

I’ve always been interested in where people come from, their start in life and how this affects them as adults. Some people carry their past as a burden while others break free of the past and start their lives anew.

The knowledge that Angel acquires during her childhood and young adulthood, gives her an unusual perspective on life and with these powers at her disposal, she takes control of her own destiny by deciding to close the chapter in her life that caused her so much trauma.

I wanted to write a story about a different character, someone living her life from an unusual starting point but still a story about everyday people that readers would recognise.

3. Angel Parsons is a fascinating character. At times it’s quite ambiguous whether she’s a ‘goodie’ or a ‘baddie’ – can you tell us more about what inspired you to create her?

Life isn’t black and white. Angel is a real woman, full of emotion and passion and she too, like everyone in the book, has choices to make based on her own experience. Those choices make her who she is and it’s up to the reader if they want to see her as ‘goodie’ or ‘baddie’. I see her as the whole package.

4. Did you already have the story planned, or did it develop as you were writing it?

It started out very differently! I had an idea and wrote about four chapters before I began to see how the whole book would work. I’ve been studying the Qabalah for a couple of years and using the paths on the tree of life to develop the story seemed the natural way to continue. I then made a skeleton plan but, it was the characters themselves that then drove the story.

5. Have you already written the next book in the trilogy?

The second book in the trilogy, Wrath of Angels, has a skeleton plan, so I know where I’m going and I’m looking forward to my characters propelling the story forward.

6. Is ‘Destiny’ going to be available as a paperback?

Yes, definitely! I’m a lover of paper books and now, with the eco way of printing books on demand, I want to give my readers the option.

7. Aside from writing, what else makes Wendy Steele tick?

I’m a simple soul. I love to dance and Tribal Unity has provided me with a wonderful group of sisters to dance with and I hope to take Tribal Bellydance toWaleswhen we move. My children inspire me every day and my partner is a constant source of support. Our home is always full of people and music, oh and cats!

8. What’s next for Wendy Steele, and more importantly her readers?

The paperback of Destiny of Angels is next. The second book Wrath of Angels is under way, as is my cook book for those of us with food intolerances, Wendy Woo’s Tummy Friendly Cookbook. I’ve a number of other projects simmering on the back burner but I’m concentrating on The Lilith Trilogy at the moment.

‘Destiny of Angels’ is available as an ebook from amazon.co.uk and amazon.com for a mere £1.99 (or equivalent), or FREE if you download it today. Click here now.

If you like the look of the book, you can do Wendy a huge favour by LIKING her facebook page.

You don’t need a Kindle Reader to enjoy the book – download the FREE kindle app for your iphone, ipad, blackberry, android phone, pc and mac from the amazon website.
Download from amazon.co.UK | Download from amazon.COM

(Don’t have an e-reader? Bit busy right now to download the app? Buy the book anyway! It’ll be there waiting for you for when you’re ready)

Find out more about author Wendy Steele at wendysteele.com

April 12, 2012
by Peter
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The Writer’s Treasury of Ideas

This week, friend and fellow author Linda Lewis (AKA Catherine Howard) takes a moment of two to tell us about her latest book ‘The Writer’s Treasury of Ideas’. So what’s the book about Linda?

Basically the book is a kind of teach yourself guide how to think of ideas. The main section is arranged as an A – Z looking at the many and varied ways I use to conjure up ideas using a mixture of instruction, examples and exercises.

I was always being asked how I came up with ideas for my stories. At my peak I was writing two or three every week.

The book is for sale from my web site www.akacatherinehoward.weebly.com where it comes with a free mini guide to short story competitions, otherwise it’s on Amazon both as a paperback and as an ebook.

Here’s an Extract…

WHAT IF?

This method of generating ideas couldn’t be simpler. All you do is take a situation and ask, what if?

For a romance, try these. This one is for the ladies. What if Brad Pitt/George Clooney/Sean Connery came to your office, took one look at you, and fell head over heels in love? What if you were so attractive, men were always asking you to marry them?

And now for the men, what if your wife wasn’t there when you got home? How would you persuade her to come back to you?

For a ghost story, any of these might work. What if ghosts were everywhere and you were the only one who could see them? This idea was used to great effect in the film, The Sixth Sense. Or what if a ghost took up residence in your car/office/corner shop/pub?

For something more domestic you could try these. What if your child’s teacher was in a wheelchair? What if a stranger gave you a ten pound note? What if you fell apart at interviews?
What if can be applied to more or less anything you can think of. It’s especially good for science fiction or fantasy.

For example, you might ask these questions. What if you could fly? What if all the electricity in the world suddenly stopped working? What if you could read people’s minds? (As in What Women Want, starring Mel Gibson) What if you had to live the same day over and over and over again? (Bill Murray in the film Groundhog Day).

You can have enormous fun with what if, and if you keep asking questions, you will find that stories start to emerge with very little effort on your part.

Find out more about Linda, and her books, over at her blog.

March 9, 2012
by Peter
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The Importance of Book Covers

Last week, at the launch of the 2012 Essex Book Festival, I joined Dave Monk from BBC Essex, author Guy Saville, and book illustrator Mary Pullen about the importance of book covers - and by the awesome power of YouTube the interview is preserved here in all it’s glory.

Click the YouTube box below to listen right away or, if you’re reading this in an email, click here to visit YouTube.

To listen to a short piece about the Essex Book Festival click here.

As part of the festival I will be giving a talk at Debden Library, (c/o Epping Forest College, Borders Lane, Loughton, IG10 3SA) at 7pm, Tues 13th March 2012 (click here for a map)
Tickets: £4, or £3 for concessions (under 18s, full-time students, registered unemployed and older people in receipt of state benefits).
Bookings can be made through the Mercury Theatre Box Office on 01206 573948

eBooks vs Print

March 7, 2012 by Peter | 0 comments

Last week, at the launch of the 2012 Essex Book Festival, I joined Dave Monk from BBC Essex, and book seller Peter Donaldson from Red Lion Books, to talk about ebooks vs print, and whether the print book is dead – and by the awesome power of YouTube the interview is preserved here in all it’s glory.

Click the YouTube box below to listen right away or here to visit YouTube.

To listen to a short piece about the Essex Book Festival click here.

March 1, 2012
by Peter
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Essex Book Festival (Come and meet me at Debden Library,13th March 2012, 7pm)

It’s that time of year again – the run up to the annual Essex Book Festival; a month and a bit chock full of book related events featuring authors from all over the country at numerous venues in and around the county.

I’ve been to a number of events over the years, last year I went to see Sara Paretsky, and David Baddiel – both excellent – but this year will be especially interesting because at one event,n Tuesday the 13th March, I won’t be amongst the audience – I’ll be the one at the front!

Yes, you heard it here first, I’m one of the authors in this years festival talking about How To Do Everything and Be Happy. What better way to celebrate over 5,000 sales?

I’ll be honest with you, this feels a little weird. I’m still shocked when someone emails me to tell me they’ve read the book, or when I discover another review on amazon. A part of me is utterly convinced that the only people at Debden Libray on the 13th of March will be me, the head librarian, and some poor soul who’s been coerced into doing the refreshments. This being the case I’d like to extend a warm and very genuine (some might say slightly desperate) invitation to come along – it really would be absolutely lovely to see you. And your friend. If you can’t do it for me, do it for the tea lady.

The way these things normally work is the author chats for a bit, then answers questions. This being the case let me just say that I’d be happy to answer anything – whether that be about the ideas in the book, writing & publishing, or my love of flapjacks. If you’ve read the book bring it along and I’ll scribble in the front for you. If you haven’t read the book, come anyway, there’ll be copies to buy on the night and did I mention there would be refreshments?

Title: Peter Jones talks about his book How to do Everything and Be Happy
Part of: Essex Book Festival
When: 7pm, Tues 13th March 2012
Venue: Debden Library, c/o Epping Forest College, Borders Lane, Loughton, IG10 3SA
(click here for a map)
Tickets: £4, or £3 for concessions (under 18s, full-time students, registered unemployed and older people in receipt of state benefits)

HOW TO BOOK YOUR TICKETS

Bookings can be made through the Mercury Theatre Box Office on 01206 573948 which is open Monday to Saturday 10am -8pm.

There are no booking charges made by the Mercury although there will be a charge for postage of £1 unless tickets are collected from the Mercury Theatre.

Please advise the Box Office if you have any access requirements when making a booking. Visitors with a disability are offered a free ticket for a companion. If you require a BLS interpreter, please advise the Box Office.
Refunds – The Festival cannot refund money or exchange tickets except if an event is cancelled, in which case return your tickets to the Box Office within 30 days for a full refund.

If you have a query about access or a general enquiry about the event please email hello@essexbookfestival.org.uk or ring 01245 347456.

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February 29, 2012
by Peter
2 Comments

why its impotent to have the rite grandma and prefect smelling

Why a misplaced hyphen can dash your hopes of ever being published.

My first real literary ‘rejection’ came at the hands of an agent who we’ll call Kate Slash. On the day that Ms Slash received my manuscript she’d clearly discovered that her husband was indeed the cheating scumbag she’d always suspected he was. Moments later she burnt both slices of toast, the cat threw up all over her white carpet, and she broke a heel on her favourite shoes. I don’t know this for sure of course, but I’m guessing it must be the case because when the first three chapters of The Good Guys Guide to Getting Girls arrived on her desk she wasted no time in telling me how much she hated it. And my god, how she hated it.

I can’t recall off the top of my head all the things she said (although me being me, I assembled them into a list and diligently worked through each point over the following months) but I do remember her final scathing comment:

“Further more the manuscript is littered with typos which is very distracting, and shows a somewhat careless and slapdash approach to your writing.” Or words to that effect.

It was this remark that stung the most. Whilst I was prepared to take on board everything else she’d said, the one thing I was pretty sure I had nailed down was my spelling, and grammar. Throughout my entire professional life nothing I’d written had ever left my computer without being run through the internal spell check, and then read through by myself and my colleagues. Even the pages Kate was busy using to stoke the fire under her cauldron had been scrutinised by several sets of eyes.

“There’s nothing wrong with those chapters,” said my mate Pat, “and I should know!” Pat’s an English teacher somewhere in the south-east of England. And given what happened next, maybe that’s as much as I should tell you about him. Or her. I’m not saying.

“Well let’s find out!” I said. “Jules -” (that’s my long suffering assistant) “find me a proof reader!”

Which was how I came to meet Alison the Proof Fairy. I duly sent Alison the same first three chapters and expected to have them sent back with a covering email telling me that she couldn’t find anything to correct.

Boy howdy – how wrong I was.

I’ve just had a quick look at the document Alison returned to me – for old times sake – and believe me when I say I can feel my cheeks glowing again, just as they did almost two years ago. I’d include the file here for you to look at, if I wasn’t too ashamed to do so.

Needless to say I learnt several very important lessons:

Firstly, regardless of how you rate your attention to detail, unless you proof for a living it’s extremely unlikely that you’ll spot all the errors in your own writing. You’re just too darn close to it. But more surprising, unless your friends are professional readers (and may I respectfully point out that being a teacher doesn’t seem to be close enough), neither will they!

Secondly, agents don’t actually seem to accept anything. They reject. As would you if you had a mountain of manuscripts to get through. You’d work through those chapters looking for reasons to throw them out, until you finally unearthed the one document that hadn’t, in any way, made you want to toss it across the room.

Finally, two years on, having published How To Do Everything and Be Happy, with a further two titles waiting in the wings, I realise more than ever the importance of perfect spelling and grammar. I simply can’t take the risk that one of my readers might come across a typo. Particularly if that reader turned out to be Kate Slash. Heaven knows what she might do.

You can find out more about Alison the Proof Fairy and the services she offers at theprooffairy.co.uk

February 11, 2012
by Peter
2 Comments

Fancy more of the same?

So how ya been? Sorry I haven’t been around but life’s been… interesting.

For starters, if you follow me on twitter or you’ve ‘liked’ the facebook page you’ll know that I’m in the process of striking a three book deal. And that’s about as much as I’m prepared to say on the subject right now because – being the superstitious sod that I am – I’m terrified that if I say much more it’ll jinx everything. That probably sounds very paranoid, and maybe it is, but consider this – just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you! Hmmmm. Not feeling so smug now are we.

SO ANYWAY… what I will tell you is that one of the titles in the deal is my current book How To Do Everything and Be Happy. Yes, almost a year after it was first released in ebook form, the book that I wrote on a whim is going to be republished. And not just republished, but updated and revised! Since Christmas much of my time has been spent working on a second edition.

I’ve never written a second edition before. Heck, I’m still getting my head around the fact that I wrote the first edition (which, can I just point out, recently celebrated it’s 6,000th sale), I certainly never expected to be updating the thing less than a year after it first came out.

The plan is to release the revised version in ebook form as soon as I can, and follow it up with a print version in June-ish. The dates are a little flexible right now because of other secret reasons which I am bursting to tell you about.. but can’t (see second paragraph). There are also a couple of other ideas I’m toying with – for instance I’d like to be able to give a free electronic copy of the revised version to anyone who shelled out on the first edition (be that electronic or paper), and anyone who’s supported me in any way (my way of saying thank you to all those people who left nice reviews, posted a comment somewhere, came to a workshop or talk, or just told someone about it – the list goes on and on). Quite how I’m going to do that I’ve yet to work out but it might be a good idea to stay subscribed to either this blog (use the box in the top right hand corner), the book’s blog, the facebook page, my facebook profle, or follow me on twitter, to ensure you don’t miss out.

The second edition will contain plenty of new material – some of which has been suggested by readers. If you like to make a suggestion feel free to drop me a line, but there’ll be more about that in a day or two over at the How To Do Everything and be Happy website - but in the meantime here’s to an ‘interesting’ life.

January 27, 2012
by Peter
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The world of public speaking – UPDATE

So, following the rip-roaring success of my first How To Do Everything and Be Happy workshop (back in November), there’s been no stopping me.

Monday I went and gave the same workshop to a fab group of Mum’s (Hello Jensine & pals!) who made me feel very welcome. Next month I’m speaking at a discussion group in Chelmsford. You already know that I’m one of the authors taking part in the Essex Book Festival (March 2012), and later this year I’m one of the tutors at Swanwick’s Summer Writer’s School (more on that nearer the time).

I’m also pleased to announce that I’m doing another Workshop on the 23rd February, with a follow up event on the 22nd March at the Therapy Life Centre here in sunny Southend-on-Sea, just a few doors down from Southend General Hospital.

So – I hear you ask – what exactly happens at these workshops?

Well, on the 23rd Feb we’ll briefly cover the three causes of unhappiness, make ourselves feel better by identifying and blaming the culprits, then move right along for an evening of brainstorming and happiness planning.

On the 22nd of March we’ll briefly re-cap the previous workshop, find out how you’ve got along and tackle any problems you may have encountered. We’ll also discuss the power of Boxing Day, and set about creating a Now List.

If this sounds like your bag then why not come along. Tickets are only a tenner (£18 for both events). To book simply call the Therapy Life Centre direct on 01702 433959 or via credit card over on the How To Do Everything and Be Happy blog.

In the meantime if you’d like to book me to talk at your group or society feel free to get in touch. You can find out more on the Talks and Workshop page.

January 5, 2012
by Peter
0 comments

Moving On – from Short Story to Novel

Guest Blogger, Friend and Author, Della Galton, talks about the launch of her latest book (‘Moving On – from Short Story to Novel’) and explains why she wishes there’d been something similar when she was a fledgling author

Today (January 5th, 2012) is publication day of my new book, and I am so excited. Even though I know everyone else in the universe won’t know and won’t care and the momentous news will pass without comment. But I am bursting with pride, and I feel a huge sense of achievement.

I wrote this book because I needed it when I wrote my first novel, and I needed it when I wrote my second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh novels…. And it wasn’t around. So I thought I should write it!

Actually, I was a bit scared of taking the huge leap between writing short stories and novels. And, rather strangely, the more I learned about writing, the more scared I was – it isn’t a straightforward transition, at least it wasn’t for me!

I have sold my work for 25 years now, and yet each time I venture into a new type of writing, whether it is feature, or serial or poetry or radio play or children’s story, or humour, or erotica or full length non fiction or novel, I feel for a little while, as though I am stumbling around in a darkened house. There are no lights, no signposts, no familiarity. And I have had success with writing, and I know the techniques, I know the craft, but that doesn’t mean I am not afraid.

I literally feel my way. Going from the short story to the novel was the biggest leap for me. I wrote my first novel knowing nothing whatever about the form.

By the time I wrote my fourth, Passing Shadows, which was the first one I sold, I felt as though the lights in the house were on – but I still had so much to learn.

What did development of characters mean? What did it really mean? How much plot did I need? What were the differences in real terms? Were there a lot of differences?

Oh yes, there were.

This is why I wrote this book. I hope my experiences will help you. I love teaching almost as much as I love writing and I wanted to share my journey with other writers who are also making the move from short story to novel.

Moving On – from Short Story to Novel – A step by step guide is the result.

Thank you for all the writers who shared their experiences with me on their moving on writing journey.

With love

Della Galton

Della Galton is the author of six novels, and three non-fiction books. Her short stories have been published in every major UK women’s magazine, as well as numerous short-story anthologies (available from Accent Press). She is Agony Aunt for Writer’s Forum magazine, and teaches at various writing courses and workshops around the country. Moving On – from Short Story to Novel – A step by step guide by Della Galton, is published by Accent Press, price £9.99.
Find out more about Della at dellagalton.co.uk.

Click here to purchase ‘Moving On’ from Amazon.co.uk

Click here to view all of Della’s books on Amazon

December 27, 2011
by Peter
2 Comments

New Year – New Goals!

So, in three days it’ll be 2012. And for the fifth year running I’ll be setting myself personal goals.

A lot of my friends dislike the idea of setting personal goals, like it somehow takes the ‘private’ part of their life – the part that is supposed to be about relaxing and having fun – and turns it into ‘work’. And work, as we all know, is the mortal enemy of fun and relaxation.

Perhaps you feel the same way? I know I did. Having read and listened to more than my fair share of self help books I thought I knew all that I needed to know about Goal Setting – enough to know that it wouldn’t work for me. And as I sat in traffic on the M25, morning after morning, listening to those Tony Robbins CDs, I’d start to wonder whether I’d enjoy them more if I wound down the window and tossed them, Frisbee-like, over the edge of the bridge and into the River Thames far below me.

That was, until I went out for a curry with my old friend Denny.

“I’ve set myself 5 goals for next year,” she told me one winter’s night in January.

“Goals?” I said

“Yeah,” said Denny as she mopped up some sauce with a strip of naan bread. I was stunned.

“Why?”

“Because I’m fed up with my life being like it is.”

“But, setting yourself goals – it’s a little extreme though, isn’t it?” She shrugged.

“Not really,” she said.

“But what if you don’t achieve them?” I asked.

“Then life will stay pretty much as it is, I guess. From that perspective I can’t really lose.” I thought about this for a second or two.

“Maybe I should set some goals,” I said.

“Maybe you should,” said Denny. “What would they be?”

And that was five years ago.

I like to set my goals at the start of each year, and review them at the end. This might make them sound a little like ‘resolutions’ but resolutions are something entirely different. “I will give up smoking” – that’s a resolution. “I have given up smoking (December, 2012)” – now that’s a goal.

Take for instance one of my goals for 2010:

My Happiness Book is published
(Dec 31st 2010)

At the time I set that the Goal I’d hardly started writing How To Do Everything and Be Happy, let alone given much thought to how I would publish it. I didn’t even have the title.

Did I achieve the goal?

No.

That’s the not so funny thing about setting goals – some of the time, perhaps even most of the time, you fail!

But then I’m not particularly motivated by ‘easy goals’ – goals that I know I have a good chance of achieving. They don’t even feel like goals – more like boring items on my to-do list. I had a friend who, on January 1^st, set herself the goal of joining a gym. By the end of the first week she’d achieved it. Was that really a goal? Shouldn’t joining the gym have been part of a much larger goal to improve her health and fitness? In my mind a goal should stretch you. A goal should be ever-so-slightly out of reach. With most of my goals I know that my chances of success are extremely slim, though the chance is there.

So my revised Goal for 2011 looked like this:

“How To Do Everything and Be Happy”
is available in three formats,
and selling really well (to be defined),
whilst I bask in the success (to be defined)
of the seminar(s)
Dec 31st 2011

And will I achieve that Goal??

No.

But I’ll come darn close. The book was released as an ebook back in March, and as a paperback a few weeks later. Both are selling better than I could have ever hoped. An audio version is planned for this coming year, and whilst I’m not exactly basking in the success of my one workshop, two more are being planned for the coming weeks.

Most important of all though, by identifying why I achieved or failed my goal I’m equipped to write smarter, more specific, or maybe utterly different goals.

Working with goals – that is, having them in your life – is something that gets easier the longer you do it. You develop a habit, or a mindset – after a while you start to look at everything you’re doing in relation to how it sits with your goals. In a very real way, your goals force you to decide what’s important to you and move you in that direction. They give you purpose and vision.

And it’s true what they say:

“Without vision the people perish.”

So, people of the interweb – what are your Goals for 2012. Drop me a line or use the comments box below – I’d love to hear from you.

Wishing you a very happy New Year

Peter Jones

Originally written for Amwriting.org