Can you tell a book by its cover?...by Sheila Claydon

Click here for my BWL page

Once, long ago, I wrote under the pen name Anne Beverley, and Golden Girl was my first published book. Then I wrote more books, still as Anne Beverley, until my family eventually persuaded me to stop hiding behind a pseudonym and write under my real name. That earlier book was still out there though, and to say the cover looks dated is an understatement!

Original cover

Then, many books later, the publishing house that owned it closed and the publishing rights returned to me. I sold it on to another publisher on the proviso that it would now be published under my real name. But in the field of publishing things are not always straightforward, so in the end I had to agree to Sheila Claydon writing as Anne Beverley, as well as a new cover. One that was certainly an improvement on the first.

Second edition cover

Then, a few years later, the same thing happened all over again. Another publisher, this time Books We Love, another cover and, finally, Golden Girl published under my own name. By then this book had been out there for a long time, so now it is a vintage romance with characters behaving a little differently than we expect them to in the twenty-first century. The heroine is still feisty though. It just takes her a little longer to get there!

Third edition cover

Now, thankfully, all my books bar one are with BWL Publishing, and I am very happy indeed about that.

In my next blog I will introduce another of those early books together with the covers they have had over the years. In the meantime, if you would like to have a taster of Golden Girl, then go to the Book Snippets page on my Website and let it take you back to what it was like to be a secretary in a large company in London and Paris in 1964. Manual typewriters, desk phones connected to a central switchboard, no screens, hardback dictionaries, shorthand dictation, blotting paper...I could go on. It was a different world except for one thing...people still liked to read romances. And if you would like to let me know which of these is your favourite cover, I'd love to know.

Fog Walks

 

Find my books here

'Tis the season!  As the days get shorter and nights get longer, the garden spider spins its web at night giving it more time to build a larger web during the fall months.

Need to clear your head? Get moving? May I suggest a fog walk? We live in a river valley town known for its spectacular fog walks, an early morning magic time that illuminates the webs in dewy mist... 

Orb-weavers (like Charlotte of Charlotte's Web) take down their webs each day. A large web that stops you in your tracks at 8 am may be completely taken down by 10am.

So early morning is the best time to catch the lovely work of Grandmother Spider, that weaver of stories to keep us warm and wondering through the winter! Happy fog walking!

Can an Online Writers' Conference Work?

                                  Please click this link for author and book information

In August I attended the inaugural online When Words Collide Festival for Readers and Writers. Before COVID-19, the in-person WWC had been going strong for nine years in my home city of Calgary. I'd attended each year, but had doubts the online version would provide the same energy, networking, and learning opportunities. As a result, I didn't give the weekend my best effort, but it made me see the potential for such online experiences.  

My first inkling an online festival/conference might work came during the Zoom test for presenters. I had volunteered to sit on two panels. Like most of the festival, they took place on the Zoom platform. At the test, I recognized familiar faces in the screen boxes, many of them people I only see yearly at WWC. One of them sent me a private 'hello' through the chat feature. She added that she was excited about the weekend. I replied with a less enthusiastic, 'It will be different.'   

 Different it was when I checked into my first panel on the festival weekend, 10 minutes ahead of time, as advised in the presenter guidelines. The virtual Zoom meeting room was already full of people discussing brain chemistry as related to writers' block. This wasn't my topic. Had I received the wrong meeting invitation? Then an attendee in one of the squares started rambling incoherently. The Zoom host said the person was a troll and deleted him from the meeting.  

Trolls, I learned, are people who join pubic Zoom meetings solely to be disruptive. Anticipating this, the WWC organizers posted meeting links only one day ahead, but trolls still found them. This year WWC made the festival free and available to everyone, largely because they were new to the online game and didn't know if the whole event would tank. If there's an online festival next year, they'll be more confident of the quality and will charge a fee, to discourage attendees who aren't serious.  

   

My computer isn't able to give me a virtual background on Zoom - this one would be fun! 

It turned out that my panel followed the one on brain chemistry in the same Zoom meeting room. Once my panel began, I found it comfortable to answer questions, which were channeled through a  moderator. Her face filled the screen, making me feel like we were having a conversation, although I missed looking out at an audience of people to get their responses. It's hard to read faces in small boxes, plus most attendees turned off their video, so only their names appeared, and some Zoom hosts preferred to show only the panelists.  

                                                       A Zoom panel might look like this

 A benefit of online festival/conferences is attendees and presenters can come from anywhere in the world. One of WWC's most popular presenters zoomed in from Greece. If you've always longed to attend a conference held far away, you can go without the cost of airfare, hotel and meals, which can add up to far more than the fee for a conference weekend. 

Another benefit of this year's online WWC is that most of the sessions were recorded. The organizers are gradually reviewing them and posting them on Youtube and other formats. 

At the festival, WWC held several Zoom socials and parties, which I stayed away from. This was a mistake. People who went said they were fun and sometimes broke into into smaller groups, so everyone had a chance to get to know a few people well. As with most things, you get back what you put in. If you register for an online conference or festival, I'd advise treating it as though you were there in person. Get involved with as much as possible, including evening parties, which you can now attend dressed in pajamas from the waist down. 

The WWC online festival was a huge effort and accomplishment to pull off. Feedback was positive. Some attendees said it was the best online writers' conference they'd been to since COVID-19 began. Others said they liked it as much as the previous years' in-person festivals. WWC is committed to hosting a festival next August and and are planning to return to an in-person event, but with online components. Based on this year's experience, a hybrid event would combine the best of both festival worlds. But if COVID-19 is still fully with us, WWC will be ready with an improved online version, hopefully without trolls. I'll be there with enthusiasm, because I know now, if I give it my best, an online writers' conference or festival can match the in-person experience.             

 

   

BUZZ WORDS and FIRST WORDS by Karla Stover

 

BUZZ WORDS and FIRST WORDS

I tried to put a reserve on a book, today. It didn't take because, apparently, I'd put a reserve on it already and had just forgotten. That was a surprise--not that I'd forgotten--but because it's not the kind of book I usually read. That got me to thinking about the buzz words that caught my eye. In this case it was the word, 'gothic' in the title, and 'distant mansion' and 'family secrets hidden' seemed to leap off the page and grab me. 

Every week the library sends me a list of recent releases. Today's list said two books were charming. Not my cup of tea--ha ha--"charming" smacks of being a cozy. 

Then there was this: ". . . just returned to England after a row with her husband, the British consul to Smyrna; Meacan Barlow, Cecily's childhood friend, now working as an illustrator. 1703 London: Cecily and Meacan are two of renowned collector Sir Barnaby Mayne's house guests when he is fatally stabbed. After a confession that can't possibly be true, the ladies hunt for the real killer.  Cecily and Meacan are two of renowned collector Sir Barnaby Mayne's house guests when he is fatally stabbed. After a confession that can't possibly be true, the ladies hunt for the real killer."

I don't think Meacan is the husband, but this description is so confusing I had to wonder about the book, no matter how "richly textured" it was.

I was recently trapped because the psychological mystery (not much of one) was supposed to be set in Cornwall from where my family hails. The author, in her twenties, looked to be about 16 and perhaps that was the trouble, not her youthful looks, it's just that she was too young to capably dip into the psychology pool. About page 3  Munchhausen by Proxy had raised its head and after that it was pretty obvious where the story was headed.

Is the following a turnoff for anyone but me--"seeks her true reflection in two kindred cities" ? I'm not even sure what that means.

Of course, all this sounds very opiniated, but there are so many books and so little time to read the best of the best, and our descriptions, the words we choose, have to work hard to capture the eye of a reader. Never mind the comments on the back of the cover. I once saw a really good recommendation signed "the author's mother." According to an east coast newspaper women I interviewed back in the mists of  time, publishers there think we'll buy a book because some well-known person recommends it.

Does anyone?

The first page of most books is generally a half page. On a reserve that just came in, the elderly men (I could have written 'old men' but 'elderly' is kinder) drinking coffee were variously described as: "a trio of geezers" "withered fools" with "flabby pink old-man lips" having heads that were "flaky bald" and who laughed like "agitated horses."

Yowsa! Too cruel for me to even want to turn the page. Which I didn't, I returned the book unread.

Picky. Picky. Picky, you say? Maybe, but those words made a first, bad impression on me.

The more I read, the more I write, the more I ponder. Such is the world of words.

Seasons and Senses

 

            Basically there are four seasons in the year, yet it dawned on me that those four sections of a year are very subjective and are not at all the same for everyone. Not only are they in opposite months in some countries, but some countries and even some states within a country don’t have the unique changes in season that others do.

            This makes it somewhat difficult to write about the seasons. To express the joy of newly flowering trees in, say October, may confuse the reader unless they are fully aware of where the story is taking place. Getting roller skates and bicycles for Christmas is only exciting if you live in Florida at the time, as I did as a child.

            Yet there is so much to be said about each season even without knowing the “where” of it. Spring is often considered the time of rebirth and new beginnings. Opposite on the spectrum is winter, when we tend to hunker down and hibernate, staying close to home and hearth.

            Which is your favorite season? What is it about that time of year you enjoy? I moved to Tennessee in the summer of one year and so looked forward to exploring the Smoky Mountains. But I contracted cancer and spent September through early May in and out of the hospital. I was unable to enjoy the changing leaves or the beautiful sunsets. That year, 2010, was the worse year for snow that the Nashville area had seen in quite some time, and I missed that too. My view out of my hospital window was a parking garage.

            You can’t discuss the seasons without combining it with your senses. After all, there’s something unique about the smell of burning leaves in the fall; how the cold wind of winter makes your eyes water and your cheeks burn. What is the single most memorable sound of summer? For me, it’s the musical jingles of the ice cream truck. Every season has its particular tastes, smells, sounds and sights.

            Have you recently read a book (or in your writing) that pulls you irrevocably into the pages because of the use of senses? You could actually hear the squeak of carriage wheels or the pesky buzz of a bug. Take a book and open it to any page. Read and note any use of the senses. In your own writing, do the same. If you don’t hear, see, taste, feel or smell something, perhaps some edits are in order. And stop to consider – you don’t want to “taste the lemon slice in the ice tea”, but rather know “the zesty slice of lemon made my cheeks pucker.”

            To help and enhance writing, make a list using the seasons and the senses. For each season, list something unique for each of your senses. Do you find it harder to list things for one sense over the others? Are you seeing things aplenty but not feeling them? Have you become immune to certain smells? Keep your list handy because you will find more to add as you approach and inhabit each season or if you travel to an area where the seasons aren’t quite the same as you are used to.

            Another exercise using your senses and or the seasons is to jot down phrases that explain something or someone without exactly explaining them.

            It smelled like home.

            She was a sight for sore eyes.

            It feels like football season.

            Her hair was as bright as the autumn day.

            His demeanor was as bitter as the winter countryside.

            One thing I found when I began writing time travel is that I had to be aware of the difference in sensual things in today’s world and that of the 1800s, where my stories were set. In “Spinning Through Time”, one of the first things Jack notices when she’s thrown back in time is the silence. Where was the traffic noise; the constant calliope of voices? Look for more differences when you read this 5 star novel that one reviewer said is:

“A Gorgeous story, it was lovely from beginning to end. A keeper. One of the best time travel romances I've read!”

Barbara Baldwin

http://www.authorsden.com/barbarajbaldwin

http://www.bookswelove.com/baldwin-barbara/

 

Guest Blogger Tami Cartwright - Dreams

 

Dreams: Have we neglected the single most valuable resource for combating the problems of our times?

 

The notion that we must “be the change we want to see in the world” (Ghandi) has been said a thousand times, in a thousand ways over a thousand years. This is a hard concept to grasp in a world where we are accustomed to blaming something or someone for the things that happen in our life. If we believe we are responsible for change, then why do we continue to expect governments, corporations, or others to solve our life’s problems? At the roots of the statement “we must be the change we want to see in the world” we can derive the meaning that we need to work on our own crap. When we work on ourselves, it impacts the people in our lives through our sphere of influence; and this ripples outward in the world. When we work on ourselves, we clear the clutter and can contribute from our highest potential. When enough people work on themselves, this has a compounding effect which creates cultural and societal changes. Of course, the opposite is true as well.

 

Psychologists nearly unanimously agree that our unconscious is driving us unknowingly and is at the root of many of our life’s problematic actions and behaviours. Consciousness is everything that we are aware of; and the unconscious is everything that we are unaware of. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung is a world-renowned teacher of the unconscious. One analogy describing his views about how powerful the unconscious is that of an iceberg, where 90% is below the surface of the ocean (unconscious) and 10% above (conscious). If 90% of what’s driving our actions and behaviours is unconscious, doesn’t this seem like an astounding opportunity?

 

This is where dreams come in. Science has proven that everyone dreams, every night, but there is little scientific understanding as to why. Jung worked with dreams extensively in his form of psychoanalytic therapy and he isn’t alone. Many well-respected psychologists including Freud saw dreams as a key information source for advancing our well-being. Dreams come from the unconscious. They are a dialogue between the ego and the Self, using both a symbolic language; which has meaning on both a personal and collective level.

The Self is referring to that inner guide/wise person, which some might call the soul or other’s might even see it as god or the god-self (sorry, to use the “g” word). One has to believe in such things to follow this line of reasoning. But what are the options? You either have an outstanding inner resource that is part of you that can help you solve your own life’s dilemmas, or someone else outside of you is responsible to fix you and the problems in your life? I’ll take the former, more empowering option any day.

 

So, if dreams are a powerful resource what can we do about it? Start paying attention to your dreams and giving them life. Work with them, learn to understand their meaning, and begin following the guidance they offer. Find a dream group that resonates with you and work together with others. The Wisdom of Your Dreams by Jeremy Taylor is an excellent book for learning how to interpret your dreams. Sign up for an online course in symbolic dream analysis: www.dreamelixir.ca

 

Shadow | Dream Elixir | Canada Dream Elixir is a shamanic, transpersonal, holotropic, alchemical vessel for raising consciousness through onlin...

 

Tami Denice is a long time dream worker, mesa carrier of the Peruvian Q’ero tradition, Holotropic Breathwork facilitator apprentice, and Jungian analysand.