To the Supportive Blogging Community – Thank you!

Rewarding, Mutually supportive, fun, uplifting, encouraging, delightful … ~ oh that was so good! In an adjective deprived literary universe it is such a relief to let them flow, especially when talking about the blogging world. An author who ignores this gift of reaching out to other bloggers in the community of writers, deprives themselves of so much … love … yes love!

I’m sure that signing up for a Blog Tour is a good experience too, but there is nothing like reaching out and making ‘on line’ relationships, in the pure sense of the word, with like minded people and the benefits are far greater than selling a few more books – you make friendships which are lasting, often crossing social media to Twitter and Facebook.

My heart-felt thanks today are in no particular order, but here are some very special people whom I’ve been privilege to have ‘met’ over the last couple of years. You can click on the name for a link to their website or blog:

TME Walsh ~ I ‘met’ Tania through mutually sharing the same publishing company for our debut novel. She is now with Carina UK, an imprint of Harlequin – a division of HarperCollins – in 2015 with her DCI Claire Winters Series

Tony Riches ~ ‘The Writing Desk.’ Tony is a writer of Historical Fiction which have been best sellers on Amazon. His latest ‘Owen’ – the first of a Tudor trilogy, has already gained 54 4.5 star reviews! He gives insightful reviews of a variety Historical Fiction.

Karen Dahood who writes book reviews on bookpleasures.com is a writer of murder mysteries – The Sophie and Sam Series series. Karen’s novel features in my October book review above.

Pat Ruppel whose blog Plain Talk and Ordinary Wisdom has stories to inspire full of empathy and warmth. As far as I know she has not written a novel but I treasure her online friendship for the way she always says just ‘the right thing.’

Adam Croft has written a successful murder mystery series which adds delightful humour to the genre. His latest ‘Rough Justice’ is recently released on Amazon.

Mary Ann Loesch’s Allthingswriting.blogspot.com who is supportive of the writing community with her ‘guest blogger’ spot. Her books can be found on Amazon

Debra Brown for her tireless efforts on behalf of authors and readers of historical fiction on Englishhistoryauthors.blogspot.co.uk. Here’s her Amazon page.

JA Beard’s riftwatcher.blogspot.co.uk has wonderful ‘musings’ and insights for authors. Here are all his book releases

Rachel J Lewis whose humour shines through everything she says and will be releasing her debut novel though Urbane Publishers in 2017. Watch this space. Rachel juggles several blogs, organises a Writers’ Group in Ampthill and chaired the Ampthill Literary festival this year. A very busy lady!

Roderick Hart, a Scottish writer who’s novel ‘A Time to Talk’ ~ a mystery in a memoir style, is delightful in an unusual way.

M J Moore with her fantastic articles and resources for ’emerging writers’ and her novel ‘Times Tempest’ which I reviewed last year.

Andy Baskerville with his Fife Photos and Art is a new blogging ‘friend’ who has a mutual love of the Kingdom Fife. His eye for an unusual photo is not only special but it transports me back to a county I’ve come to know quite well, lived in for a year and have written about on my other blog http://www.selectionsofreflections.wordpress.com.

Oh dear. I’m sure I have missed many wonderful people, but to all of you bloggers who find time for others – many thanks. You deserve success as good karma is spread around the globe.

The Ampthill Writers’ Group – A big thank you!

The idea for the Ampthill Writer’s Group was conceived by myself and @adamcroft at his booksigning in Horatio’s, one of the many indie bookshops which sadly died during the recession. Originally it was known as The Albion Writers because we met in the back room of the wonderful pub in Ampthill, The Albion, in the tradition of true literary giants of the past. We aspired to be giants in our different ways – as every writer does!

The meetings, which are now held the first Wednesday of every month in The Albion, but have moved out to the main bar area because numbers have grown so much thanks to Rachel! Our purpose has always been to meet, talk, share ideas, glean advice and generally relax in the convivial company of fellow writers. It had never been formal, which has not suited a few, who would have preferred more of a structure, but most of us revelled in this special time each month. Our other purpose, mentioned on the first meeting, was to plan an Ampthill Literacy Festival. My only sadness was that the actual realization of this idea happened when I was living in Fife and so I could not take an active role, but I am happy that Rachel_J_Lewis, who also took over the running of this writers’ group, Philip Whitely Felipewh and a band of extremely competent folk from Ampthill (I live in a village close by) have now run the festival for two years and I’m thrilled for them that it has been very successful. A perfect venue – Ampthill!

Since I have chosen the next few blog posts to say a big thank you – this is a very special one. I would like to thank all of the Ampthill Writer’s group, especially Rachel_J_Lewis , for being so supportive over the last few years. adamcroft has now written numerous murder mysteries. Felipewh Philip had his first novel published a few months ago and a special mention to Simon Michel who will be at Waterstones Bedford this Saturday 17th October from 11.30 am to sign his novel The Brief. He will be in full judge’s gown I hear so I look forward to popping by.

Just a word of encouragement to revpeterlaws , who has also been such a good listener and encourager – Keep faith. I am sure one of the big ones will snap you up shortly!

A Great Big Thank You

In the last couple of weeks I had the pleasure of meeting up with the students from North Herts College who designed the covers for ‘Murder, now and then’, in a cover competition and it was heart warming to spend some time with them. (once a teacher always a teacher!)

First I met up with William Smith who designed the image for kindle. I asked him what he thought of the experience.

Available on Kindle

‘It’s one thing learning at college but it is another thing designing to specifications and deadlines and working with an author to make amendments. The  other good thing was when I had an interview for university, I felt that I had something real and interesting to talk about and it helped. It gave me confidence.’

I wish Will good luck in his next few years at University and I’m so pleased it was such a positive experience. Sorry about closing my eyes in the photo though! I’m always doing that.

 

 

Then last week I had a chat with Emma Black, who painstakingly designed the paperback cover in 3D before having help from a tutor 😉 to do the formatting. She needed to be so patient when it came to amendments and it was not until half way through the process that I realised she was modelling each image before taking photographs of it. Amazing. I asked her what she thought of the experience.

Murder, now and then available on Amazon

‘I looked at your specification and I chose the elements I thought were the most important and spent some time thinking about the design. I know you were worried asking me to change parts of it but I just wanted to get it right. I did find the time keeping part difficult, since I had my other course work to do at the same time, and know I have to work on meeting deadlines, but my family are so proud of me now. I enjoyed the experience!’

I am not only thankful to these students, but their tutor Ben Hogan and another tutor and friend Peter Arnold for making it happen.