I began writing ‘Silver Linings’ in 2005 intending it to be a one-off story and with no idea it would develop into a trilogy but, now in 2008, here I am putting the final touches to ‘Fool’s Gold’ which will end Sam’s story. Unless, of course, I just can’t bear to leave it there or readers let me know that they would like more.
Over these last three years, writing The Winterne Series has taken a massive amount of time, used up an enormous part of my family life but has taken me and my family to new places, given us new experiences and the opportunity to meet some wonderful people. I would like to use this page to say thank you to those people for their friendship, support, help and kindness.
When I began ‘Silver Linings’, I persuaded my long-suffering husband, David, to take me to Somerset for a few days to confirm some of the details I would be including in the story. This meant finding accommodation so I ‘surfed’ the Net to find a good Bed and Breakfast Guest House in the Wells area. This led us to Hilary and Terry Millard at Double Gate Farm Godney www.doublegatefarm.co.uk which we can’t recommend highly enough. Their B&B is warm, welcoming and comfortable and in a beautiful setting and the help they gave with background material was invaluable.
I am also grateful to the staff at Wookey Hole Caves www.wookey.co.uk who allowed my friends from Dragons Tail Design www.dragonstaildesign.co.uk to take the photographs we used for the cover of ‘Silver Linings’ and gave us images for postcards and posters etc. They also allowed me to hold three signing events in the shop. We would have been at their Santaland last December but, unfortunately, we had to cancel due to a break-in at our house on the day we were to leave. I hope to pay another visit to Wookey before too long.
As you may have seen from other areas of the website, I am a founder member of a fast-growing group of writers, artists, website masters, photographers, copy editors and proof readers, who work as a cooperative to help promote our own work, provide help and support for our members and, hopefully, assist with advice etc to other aspiring writers who have found it difficult to break in to the literary world. We have held book festivals and Meet the author sessions at art centres and libraries and within around eighteen months we have grown from three writers, two artists and a manager/treasurer (David), to approximately thirty. New Writers UK can be contacted through our website www.newwritersuk.co.uk and we will be delighted to help (if we can) with advice, information or support. Our next festival will be at Nottinghamshire County Council Headquarters, County Hall, West Bridgford, Nottingham NG2 7QP on Saturday, 27 th September 2008.
In addition to the festivals, conferences and signings I have participated in, I have made some wonderful new friends. In particular, Helen Hollick, a highly acclaimed author of historical novels who, for the last couple of years has produced the first two volumes of a fascinating piratical tale – ‘Sea Witch’ and ‘Pirate Code’ www.helenhollick.net . Take a look at Helen’s books. She has a style of writing that actually makes you feel the sea spray and, ladies, you’ll love her hero. You should also know that Helen’s ‘Harold the King’ is set to be made into a major film. 1066 will be a tremendous enterprise produced by Robin Jacobs with Tiger Films (Singapore) and Reverie Productions (Hollywood) are uniting to film this epic. Helen is the researcher and screenplay writer. Keep an eye on this – it’s getting very interesting.
I am delighted to have made the acquaintance of Nicola Monaghan. Nicola was award winning with her first book, ‘The Killing Jar’ and has recently launched her second book ‘Starfishing’ which is also receiving rave reviews. Nicola’s books are contemporary, gritty, direct and compelling but where in ‘The Killing Jar’ I began to feel despair, I was left with hope and I very much look forward to reading ‘Starfishing’. www.nicolamonaghan.co.uk
I’ll keep you updated on events, appearances and how ‘Fool’s Gold’ is coming along. I anticipate it will be finished within the next few weeks and available this summer but I don’t have a date yet. You may (or not) be interested in knowing that Book 4 (as yet unnamed) will be a stand-alone book linked to The Winterne Series but you will not need to have read them to understand what’s going on. I also intend to write another trilogy, ‘The Winterne Chronicles’. These will be historical stories linked to Winterne Manor but with the fantasy element – after all the elves live for centuries and Sam’s adventures were not the first they have been involved in.
As a final note, I have been admonished by my daughter, Rachel, because apart from the acknowledgements given in my books, she wanted me to make sure I gave her a special credit here – to quote her ‘because I flippin’ well deserve it’ - for all the research and editing she carried out for me. And, to be perfectly honest, I did ‘borrow’ two names from her. Rachel has to take the credit for inventing the names ‘Piggybait’ and ‘Clap-trap’ however all other names were creations of my own. There you are Rachel – you got your mention and my undying thanks. How’s that?
Something else I would like to mention here. A friend of mine is undertaking a sponsored walk in April 2009 from Minehead in Somerset to Poole in Dorset in aid of the Parkinsons Society. This means a trek of 630 miles and she will take between 5 and 6 weeks to finish, staying at campsites along the way. Take a look at her website www.mkdigitalproductions.co.uk/karenswalk