Next Christmas Will be Different by Pauline Barclay - PROMO!

On the blog today we have the wonderfully talented Pauline Barclay bringing us all an early Christmas Present. Thanks so much Pauline! 

Pauline Barclay, author of four top selling novels has released a short festive story in time for Christmas, Next Christmas Will Be Different, and it's now free!

"Thank you so much JB for having me on your amazing blog to promote my short story. As you know I wanted Next Christmas Will Be Differentto be available as a free download on all e-readers, and I am delighted to announce it is! It's a little gift from me to say thank you to all the fabby readers who have read my books."

Next Christmas Will Be Different.

When the O’Reilly family gather for the festive season it is a time for catching up, eating too much and making promises, but can the promises be kept?

Here are the links:

Amazon co uk for Kindle

Amazon com for Kindle

Barnes & Nobel for Nook

Smashwords for all downloads

Pauline's links:

http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.com

www.paulinebarclay.co.uk

I hope you enjoy this short festive story.

   

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Guest Post by Tilly Tennant AND Competition!!!!

Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to be part of the team promoting Hopelessly devoted by Tilly Tennant. The book cover will be available soon for everyone to see. In the meantime, enjoy the guest post from Tilly and be sure to enter the competition. The giveaway is 3 ecopies of Hopelessly Devoted plus 3 ecopies of an exclusive Christmas novella, Mishaps and Mistletoe.  This novella is not available to buy this year!

What are the chances?

Every generation has their pop heartthrobs. As a little child, I remember the bedroom walls of my teenage aunt being plastered with posters of David Essex and the Bay City Rollers.  She used to tell me that one day she would marry Woody and I actually believed she would! When I got a little older, it was my turn to stare at posters of Morten Harket on my wall and dream of the day when he would realise that he was actually in love with a fifteen year old from Staffordshire, he just didn’t know it because he hadn’t met me.  Of course, this is all pie in the sky (unless you’re one of a very select and rare few throughout pop history), but just imagine if it were possible.  What if you did meet your idol, the subject of your floaty daydreams?  And what it he did fancy you back?

To meet her idol is all Bonnie dreams of in Hopelessly Devoted.  The trouble is, she’s in her mid thirties with a teenage daughter of her own, Paige, who also shares the same fantasies of meeting young, gorgeous pop heartthrob, Holden Finn. Bonnie has been let down badly by the men in her life in the past, and pouring all her energies into dreaming of a man she can never have seems a safe bet. After all, Holden will never let her down. Holden will always be the impossible, unreachable image of perfection. So there’s no harm in Bonnie’s little daydreams, surely….

Hopelessly Devoted

There’s only one man for Bonnie, and that’s Holden Finn. The problem is, Holden Finn a twenty-something pop megastar with his boy band, Every Which Way, who doesn’t even know she exists. Not only that, but half the women of the world want to be Mrs Finn, including Bonnie’s teenage daughter, Paige. But the real men in Bonnie’s life only let her down, and a man you can never have can never let you down… right?  When Paige wins a radio competition to meet Holden and his band, it seems all that is set to change. Bonnie is about to find out that you should be careful what you wish for, and that happiness can come in the most unexpected shape…

Hopelessly Devoted  is due for release December 2013 but you can get your hands on a free copy by entering the Hopelessly Devoted blog giveaway. Not only that, but you’ll also win an exclusive unreleased Christmas novella, Mishaps and Mistletoe, which is only available by entering the draw.

About Tilly:

Tilly Tennant was born in Dorset but now lives in Staffordshire with her slightly nutty family. Tilly is married to Mr Tennant (not that one, though a girl can dream). After years of dismal and disastrous jobs, including paper plate stacking, shop girl, newspaper promotions and waitressing (she never could carry a bowl of soup without spilling a bit), she decided to indulge her passion for the written word by enrolling on a degree in English and creative writing. She wrote her first novel in 2007 during her first summer break at university and has not stopped writing since. She also works as a freelance editor, and considers herself very lucky that this enables her to read many wonderful books while getting paid for it.

Tilly Tennant on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TillyTenWriter

Tilly’s facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/TillyTennant

Follow Tilly’s blog http://tillytennant.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Gracie's War by Elaine Everest - Promo Post and Author Interview

Publishing 15^th October 2013

Pulse Romance

Do our actions and decisions mark us and stay with us for the rest of our lives? Gracie has her life before her as the dark clouds of the Second World War gather.

Though she and her family cope well with the stresses on the home front, Gracie's transformation to adulthood is swifter and more brutal than she could have ever imagined.

Gracie meets Tony, who arouses such feelings in her that she has never experienced before - not with Joe her regular beau who considers her his girl. Then, one night, one mistake, and she realises she is carrying Joe's child.

And now Tony has gone to war.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW 

JB:  Why did you decide to write about this particular period in history?

ELAINE: I grew up hearing my parents talk about the war years along with stories of family life ‘back then’. The community I grew up in Slade Green, NW Kent was very close. These days it has been swallowed up as part of outer London but even in the sixties it had a village atmosphere where everyone looked out for the children and it was safe to leave the door unlocked. Again, when I married and moved to nearby Erith in the 70’s I knew many people and learned how my street has survived the war. In fact Gracie’s friend Peggy lived in my own house in Alexandra Road. I knew and loved the people as well as the area so it was an easy choice to set my story there.

JB: Did Gracie’s character develop the way you had originally plan or did she develop completely differently? 

ELAINE: I knew Gracie as a young woman. She was exactly as I had designed her. However, as the story grew darker I was surprised how she coped when I threw danger in her path. But then she was like many women at that time. They had to grow up quickly as the War took over their lives.

JB: What sort of research did you have to do for the book?

ELAINE: I needed to check local history. I couldn’t rely completely on family stories. I found that reading the BBC website containing war memories was very helpful as it gave me glimpses of what people thought about, the weather the day war broke out and people who saw the boats go off to take part in the relief of Dunkirk. I wanted to know about real people and that’s where I found it. I also immersed myself in films set in those years and played records from the war years. My mother was rescued from the floods in 1953 only weeks before her wedding to my dad. Although she passed away when I was 17 (she was 40) the stories she told me have stayed with me all these years.

JB: From start to finish, how long did it take to write the book?

ELAINE: The book went through the RNA New Writers Scheme in 2012 and took around six months though it had been in my head for a while until I was ready to write.

JB: You have written many short stories throughout your writing career. Tell us a little bit more about the process for writing a short story and how that differs from writing a full length book?

ELAINE:  I write short stories for women’s magazines (womag) so my first ideas have to fit the right market. Not only the word length but the style of that magazine and what the readers like to read. I have to be able to sell the story to more than one market so I may have several versions that also fit overseas magazines. I also have to write ahead all the time so for some magazines I am writing Christmas stories in the summer months which can be tricky. The difference between writing my short stories and novels is that I have the luxury of more words to play with and being able to include extra sub plots and in depth characters. 

JB: Was the short story market a difficult one to break into?

ELAINE: Yes, I had to learn my craft. We wouldn’t expect a plumber to fix our loo on the first day at work and I didn’t expect to sell stories straight away. However I did send some awful stories off and thankfully they were rejected. It was all part of the learning process.

JB: You are involved in adult education and founded The Write Place, a creative writing school.  You must find this a very worthwhile venture. Tell us a little bit more about how this came about.

ELAINE: I’m very proud of The Write Place and have seen so many beginners not only enjoy their writing but succeed in competitions and placing their stories in magazines. We run all classes month by month so that no one has to fork out for six month terms like other educational institutions. We are a very happy crowd and not at all stuffy. One week we can be writing hints. Tips and fillers and the next family pieces for a newspaper or a horror story for a competition. We like to try all kinds of writing. We have classes for novel writing, womag writing and also a general writing class. Cakes feature highly in our classes as we love to celebrate a student’s success.

JB: Do you have any invaluable writing tips?

ELAINE: Keep writing. It’s no good thinking about starting to write. Just pick up a pen and do it. Also network as much as possible and attend classes and talks. Many of my students are NWS members and we attend the events together. We also trek off to the Writers Holiday each year. I’m away soon with three writing friends for our annual writing retreat in Whitstable. This needn’t cost a lot of money in fact we often challenge students to sell hints and tips etc to fund their writing trips.

JB: Do you have any writing rituals such as favourite music playing while you write?

ELAINE: When writing Gracie’s War I did play music from that era but to be honest I’d stop writing to read the CD covers and pick new songs. I can’t write in silence. I have the television running all day long – although I have to switch over when Jeremy Kyle comes on the screen. We’ve always had dogs in the house so my daily writing had to fit around their needs. If I forget them too long they would come and tell me! We only have the one young dog, a Polish Lowland Sheepdog at the moment. He does like to stay with me when I write but has the annoying habit of shredding pieces of paper. I must be the only writer who has one eye on the computer screen and the other on the dog!

Thanks so much to Elaine for taking time out of her busy day to answer my questions.

                            About the Author    

Elaine Everest is a freelance writer and lives in Swanley, Kent with her husband Michael and Polish Lowland Sheepdog, Henry. She has written over sixty short stories for women’s magazines worldwide. Her features have appeared in publications ranging from The Guardian, The Daily Express and the Daily Mail to My Weekly and Your Dog. Her opinion pieces have led to many appearances on radio including chatting to Jenni Murray on Woman’s Hour about having a husband under her feet all day long. Elaine has written numerous columns for canine publications centred around her expertise in the world of dogs. This has led to commissions to write three successful books for dog owners. 

Elaine’s successful writing life led her to become a qualified teacher for adult education. Four years ago she founded The Write Place creative writing school and holds regular classes at The Mick Jagger Centre in Dartford Kent.

Elaine was BBC Radio Short Story Writer of the Year in 2003, short listed for The Harry Bowling Prize in 2012, Short listed for The Festival of Romance novel competition in 2012 and winner of the Myrmidon Books (Pulse Romance) Write for Us competition in 2013.

Gracie’s War is her first published novel and is set in North West Kent where she grew up. A member of the Romantic Novelist Association, Elaine is a graduate of the RNA New Writers Scheme. Gracie’s War is short listed for their Joan Hessayon Award in 2014.

Website
@elaineeverest

www.pulseromance.com
@pulseromance

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Guest Post - Carolyn Mathews

Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to welcome Carolyn Mathews back to the blog for a guest post, chatting about her writing journey!

Getting There in the End

I started my writing career with an ELT publisher when I worked as a teacher of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) and produced readers and plays for language learners. I love writing dialogue and I think this shows in my fiction. At the moment, my output consists of a debut novel, Transforming Pandora, and a sequel, which will be out some time next year. I’ve always been interested in the mind, body, spirit world and that aspect of Pandora’s life developed as a vital thread in the book. I was inspired and motivated by a Novel Writing class at Birkbeck College and am currently a member of a local writing group. It’s important to me to keep in touch with other writers. There’s nothing like an objective eye to spot those naughty little repetitions, clichés and inconsistencies we’re sometimes blind to. Everyone’s writing is informed by the sum of their experiences, so I believe life experiences matter as much as academic qualifications.

 Having left school because I couldn’t stand two more years of wearing a uniform (that hat!), I subsequently left a solid job in local government to work in a Spanish nightclub, much to my mother’s horror. Once I’d married and had children, I acquired a degree in English Literature and Drama, so I got there in the end. Have you heard of the People’s Book Prize? It was founded to give new authors equal opportunity in the marketplace. Its aim is to discover writers' talent, raise the profile of libraries and celebrate reading. The current patron is Frederick Forsyth, but there’s no judging panel, all votes are cast by members of the public. A couple of weeks ago my Roundfire publisher, Dominic, told me he’d submitted Transforming Pandora for The People’s Book Prize, and it had been accepted for the winter quarter, which starts December 1^st.  Which is my birthday. So double yay!

With this in mind, he set up a 0.99 ebook price promo running for two weeks from the 1st December to 14th December on all systems - Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Apple etc, so if you want to buy it, it’s on SALE.

http://amzn.to/17VrON7

I feel so excited by this stroke of luck. Writers like me, who are new to the whole experience, will know how difficult it is to find the readers we know would enjoy our books, if only they could be contacted! That’s why book bloggers like JB and her friends are so important. Thanks for giving me this opportunity to share the joy. It's been nice talking to you!

Here’s the website if you’d like to register and vote:

http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/register.php

                                                                                

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