BWL Publishing Inc. New Contest Win a Kindle Paperwhite

 

View this email in your browser     Win A Kindle Paperwhite from BWL Publishing Newsletter Subscription Contest.  Drawing for the Kindle Paperwhite pictured below.  Drawing will be on December 1, 2020 and winner's name will be posted in the December newsletter.  All entrants must be newsletter subscribers and winner's subscription will be verified before prize is awarded.  https://bookswelove.net/bwl-newsletter-subscriber-contest-entry-form/       October New Releases from BWL Publishing       Books We Love to write... Books You Love to read       Windmaster Golem by Helen B. Henderson   Kiansel, sister to the current Oracle of Givneh, is expected to one day assume the mantle and lead the temple’s followers. Her emerging powers force an impossible decision. Turn her back on her family and heritage to study the way of magic or follow the teachings of the oracle. Banishment to a remote village as healer, a position he despised, fueled Relliq’s desire for revenge. The discovery of a mythical city and an army of clay soldiers provided the means to control all mages--including the one he wanted most—Kiansel. Brodie, weaponsmith for the School of Mages couldn’t refuse the archmage’s request to act as escort for a healing team fighting a curse upon the land. But how can a man without any magic of his own fight a curse or protect a friend from an invisible stalker.     https://bookswelove.net/henderson-helen/ Sylvia's Secret by Roberta Grieve   Life as a WAAF in wartime England is not as glamorous as Sylvia Bishop had anticipated, although in letters home she tries to keep up the pretence for her sister Daisy. Then she is posted to a new RAF station and her work becomes more interesting. She is put in the Photo Intelligence unit and becomes very good at her job. Frustratingly, she cannot tell Daisy or anyone else what that entails as she has had to sign the Official Secrets Act.   Her secret job is not the only thing that inhibits Sylvia from confiding in her sister. She has fallen in love with handsome Wing Commander Hugh Smythe, a forbidden love as he is married. If their relationship is discovered it will mean scandal and ruined careers for both of them.    Sylvia desperately tries to forget Hugh and concentrate on her very important work. But how can she when she works so closely with him?   https://bookswelove.net/grieve-roberta/     Begotten by Katherine Pym   On the verge of destruction, Kessav is shocked when his wife refuses to accompany him to a new land. As the ground splinters under her feet, Luna, a kitchen slave, is terrified. She finds Kessav in the market, fires exploding all around them. He takes her with him where they leap into an energy field to land in ancient Sumer, 4500 BCE. Their new world is clean with no fire belching from rents in the earth, but Elam, Kessav’s old friend, is furious over the wife's desertion and shows bitterness and hatred. Kessav builds a new life but holds secrets from Luna, and Luna fears telling her secrets would destroy Kessav. After the loss of their firstborn to the great goddess, will their love bind them together? Will Elam exact a cruel revenge?    https://bookswelove.net/pym-katherine/      Mother Shipton and the Sister Witches by Jude Pittman and Gail Roughton The Shipton history is complicated. Some families have a guardian angel. The Shiptons have a guardian ancestor who whizzes through the centuries and jumps right in whenever one of her girls is in trouble.  All the girls have power and they’re watched over by elder sister Lillian, who takes her job as family trouble shooter seriously.  There’s no shortage of trouble to be sorted out either and even with their own powers each of the girls needs help. First Katherine's oilman fiancé disappears in the Gulf of Mexico, and then Irene's world champion saddle bronc rider fiancé is sabotaged and in danger of being trampled by a bucking bronco.  The spider-web of trouble stretching between these three modern sister witches might be too much for even a time-traveling guardian angel to handle on her own.   https://bookswelove.net/pittman-jude/     Whistling Up A Ghost by Dean L. Hovey Peter and Jenny Rogers return from their honeymoon to a pile of wedding presents including the deed to an old house. They open presents from the residents of Whistling Pines Senior Care Center ranging from thoughtful, to thrift shop purchases, and “what is that?” Taking a break from the gift opening party, they tune in to a live news broadcast and watch the historical society president open a time capsule found during demolition of the band shell. The opening ceremony turns grim when a rusty pistol and a newspaper clipping about an old murder are revealed. The Whistling Pines rumor mill runs amok as the retired residents offer up murder motives, stories about the victim’s checkered past, and a multitude of potential murderers. Despite his full-time job as Whistling Pines recreation director, Peter gets dragged into the time capsule murder investigation.   https://bookswelove.net/hovey-dean/     Subscriber prize drawing! Each month one subscriber will win a bundle of 3 eBooks from BWL Publishing. Monthly winners will be entered into an annual drawing and in December we'll draw from those names for a new Kindle! This month's winner is   Robin Berryhill   Robin, please visit https://bookswelove.net/ and choose the three eBooks of your choice. Send the titles to bookswelove@telus.net Congratulations Robin!       An Interview with Katherine Pym   Katherine Pym and her husband divide their time between Seattle, WA and Austin, TX. She loves history, especially Early Modern England, where most of her stories originate, and one other, a biographical novel of Camille Desmoulins during the French Revolution. His real life reads like a tragic romance.     How are you doing during these crazy COVID-19 times? Have you been quarantined?   We've self-quarantined during the lockdown, and again after we ventured outside. With stage IV cancer, I have to be more careful than most.   The winter was tough so we were forced to stay in anyway, although we missed going to dinner and eating out. We missed visiting with friends and family. It's been a lonely few months, must say. BUT on the upside, I finished my story of ancient Sumer/Sumeria, which is a plus.   Do you believe the Coronavirus will (or should?) make its way into future books by various authors?   Maybe later. It's too early for people to see covid-19 in a story when we've been living it for the last several months. And we don't know how it will flesh out, if we are on the wane (hope!) or if we're on the verge of another spike (no no tell me it ain't so), like the Spanish Flu which it seems the scientists have in the back of their minds.   Do you have a new release or upcoming book?   Yes, and thanks for asking. My story 'Begotten' is a historical/fantasy based in ancient Sumer, or as many understand it to be, Sumeria. Due to the vast amount of clay tablets unearthed, the time frame, and what was accomplished then, takes place between 4500BCE and 3500BCE.    It starts out with a recurring dream (the fantasy part of the story) I've had since youth of seeing a large temple with people standing before it. They are fearful. I feel something terrible takes place within those mighty walls. Then I'm running, the world shattering about me. A man takes my hand and we dash down the street to a roiling hot ocean.   After that, you'll have to read the story, which released this month. I have Notes from The Author and a Bibliography.   Scholars have unearthed enough clay tablets to understand the philosophy of the temple and its workings, which I used to the inth degree. The scholars were very kind and gave permission to use their data.   What's your favorite genre to write?   Mostly historical fiction. I know a lot about the English Restoration, but my research has also taken me to the earlier part of the 17th century, as witnessed in the BWL Canadian Brides with Sir David and Lady Sara Kirke, real people who settled in Newfoundland and created a successful fishery. Doesn't sound so exciting when you read this, but David and Sara also had a home in London England, where he followed in his father's footsteps as a vintner. David Kirke was a privateer for King Charles I, but had a bit of a tangle with the old king, which is also expressed in my novel, Pillars of Avalon. It was a real stroke of luck to have run into the couple.   What have you been reading lately?   Mostly stories from other historical authors. I'm amazed and thrilled at the research they come across and express in their stories. Some of the historical fiction authors can be truly historical scholars of the time they write, then weave into a fictional tale. Truly amazing.   What do you like to do in your spare time, away from the computer?   I spend time with my family and of late find comfort in crocheting.   Do you envision yourself writing into your later years?   I am in my later years. With the cancer progressing I never know if, once I start a new story, if I'll finish it. It was thus with Begotten and as a result is less than my normal 95K word count, but it's surprisingly up there. My characters could not stop telling me what to write and how to write it. They told me to delve deeper into the Sumerian texts and come up with so many things that rested in one of mankind's cradle of civilization. If I could travel back in time, I think I'd start there.   What's your guilty pleasure?   I love going on day trips, to see the amazing landscape out there, which is as diverse as man him/herself. You can see ancient seashells along roads in Texas where there was once a vast sea. You can find Lewis and Clark's saltworks in Oregon, unending trees that fill the landscape of BC in Canada. And you can see the incredible destruction of the fires that swept across California. That's when I remember the beauty, some of which is gone now, of the vinyards and the towns that grew up around them.     Where can we find more about you and your books?   I'm all over the place, in Kobo, Smashwords, on the BWL website and blog, and of course amazon. https://www.facebook.com/Novels-by-Katherine-Pym-159221407423473/posts/ https://www.facebook.com/katherine.pym/ @KatherinePym (twitter) https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/katherine%20pym https://www.kobo.com/us/en/search?query=katherine+pym         Copyright © 2020 Books We Love Ltd., All rights reserved. You're receiving this email because you opted in at our website. Please don't mark us as spam. Simply click unsubscribe if no longer interested. Thanks! Our mailing address is: Books We Love Ltd. 100 Chinook Winds Airdrie, Alberta T4B 4B4 Canada Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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.