Romy Gemmell's Blog, page 22

Out and About

Although it can hardly be called summer up here in the west coast of Scotland, we've been enjoying getting out and about at weekends for walks and coffees. The one is my reward for the other! Last weekend, we revisited one of the local beauty spots in the countryside not too far from here. I think I mentioned it a couple of years ago on the blog. To get there, it's a lovely drive through wide, empty moorland populated with lots of sheep which wander on to the country road. It's even better just now with all the lambs about, though we had to be extra careful to watch out for the wanderers.



Loch Thom is the local reservoir and further on, at the famous old Cut which carried the water from the reservoir at one time, there's a great nature trail which starts off with a lovely level stroll along a path, then gradually begins to slope down until you're level with the meandering burn way down in the depths. If you continue on, you can cross the little bridge and gradually climb up the endless stairs on the other side  It feels like another world, fairly near a big town, yet right out in the countryside. One of the scenes in The Highland Lass takes place out here! The gorse was fantastic, with its splashes of yellow everywhere and the waterfall is at the beginning of the trail.


It's a great place for picnics and you can also walk in the opposite direction from the Cut back along the moorland path beside the Loch. It's also a great place to get fitter, with all that walking and it's a change from our usual coastal walks. Next time, I'm hoping to get a few more miles in!

Rosemary

Milestones and Special Events

Don't you just love when it's a time of special events in your life, whether that be milestone birthdays, anniversaries, or such like. Last year, I had a significant birthday and next month husband and I celebrate our Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Although we find it difficult to imagine forty years together, we're both still fit and healthy enough to enjoy life and are looking forward to a special holiday. But more of that in June!

Last weekend, we celebrated our beautiful wee granddaughter's third birthday and that was a very special day. Both sets of grandparents and Aunty Vikki joined in the fun and enjoyed the pink fairytale castle cake. The colour pink and fairy stories have suddenly ousted Thomas the Tank Engine from top place, so we're assuming girls will be girls all by themselves!


This week, my lovely daughter, Victoria (to use our name for her), has signed a contract with traditional publisher, Strident, who will publish her debut YA novel, Follow Me, in October. I'm so delighted for her as she's had some success with short fiction and deserves to be more widely read. I can't wait for this to be out at last and imagine it will be enjoyed by older teens and adults alike.

I should be emailing out the May newsletter over the weekend hopefully, so if you haven't already subscribed and would like to be added to the mailing list (which is only used for the newsletter), please drop your email address into the box on the right side of the blog.

Hope you all enjoy the bank holiday weekend. Some summer sun would be a lovely bonus!

Rosemary

Free Scrivener Webinar and Free Book

I've read about lots of authors now using Scrivener for their writing and I got as far as downloading the trial offer ages ago, but didn't continue trying to work it out! Now, Joanna Penn has mentioned a free webinar on offer this week to show us how to get to grips with this powerful programme - if you register, you can catch up with it after the live broadcast. This is what Joanna said:

How to write, organize and format your book with Scrivener - free webinar! 
Scrivener is the tool that changed my own writing life and I'm a real evangelist for helping others to understand its powerful functionality. The last Scrivener webinar we did had over 1000 attendees and was so much fun that we're doing it again :) We'll cover tips for both non-fiction and fiction authors and I'll show you how I'm using Scrivener for my next books.
The webinar will be on Thurs 21 May at 12 noon US Pacific, 3pm US Eastern, 8pm London for the live webinar and Q&A with me and Joseph Michael, the Scrivener Coach.
If you register, you'll also get access to the recording which will be available within 24 hours after the call and available for you to watch over the weekend. 
Click here to register for your free place. 

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Writing friend, Mary Smith, is offering her wonderful novel, No More Mulberries , free today (Monday) on Amazon. Set in Afghanistan just before the Taliban, it's well worth the read and it has over 50 great reviews! Mary actually worked there in the past so knows what she's talking about. Some of you may remember I interviewed Mary when the novel first came out a couple of years ago.

Scottish-born midwife, Miriam loves her work at a health clinic in rural Afghanistan and the warmth and humour of her women friends in the village, but she can no longer ignore the cracks appearing in her marriage. Her doctor husband has changed from the loving, easy-going man she married and she fears he regrets taking on a widow with a young son, who seems determined to remain distant from his stepfather.

When Miriam acts as translator at a medical teaching camp she hopes time apart might help her understand the cause of their problems. Instead, she must focus on helping women desperate for medical care and has little time to think about her failing marriage. When an old friend appears, urging her to visit the village where she and her first husband had been so happy. Miriam finds herself travelling on a journey into her past, searching for answers to why her marriage is going so horribly wrong. 
Her husband, too, has a past of his own – from being shunned as a child to the loss of his first love.  

Wonderful Review

I was so thrilled to come home just after lunch to find a wonderful review of The Highland Lass on the very interesting A Woman's Wisdom site.

I was told in an email that Cynthia, who reviewed it, cried twice! What more could an author ask, that a reader's emotions have been touched. It is both gratifying and humbling.

Rosemary

Unexpected Interview

I've just been interviewed by fellow author, Wendy Jones in what must be the quickest turnaround of any interview I've had! Thanks Wendy. You can find the interview here, if you have the time or inclination to visit.

Rosemary

Information for Writers

I mentioned the IndieReCon online conference a few posts back with all its workshops on self-publishing. Alison Morton, who writes the very successful Roma Nova books, has given me the link to her account of the self-publishing talk at Foyles Bookshop which took place as part of the Indie Author Fair in London. You can read it on Alison's blog here and find information about Alison's new book, Aurelia, the fourth in the series.



Helena Fairfax and other authors have good tips for writers in a new e-book: Romance and Mystery Writers on Writing. You can read more about it, along with a piece by Helena on her website.

Give up Ironing - and Write!

Although I actually enjoy ironing, as long as I can watch a film at the same time, this little book from Kathleen McGurl is full of great motivational and inspirational time management tips for writers - and the author herself is an inspiration!


Give up Ironing is free to download today and it's worth taking time to sit down and read it. I'm about halfway through and absolutely needed Kath's firm reprimands about time-wasting activities, as I'm guilty of several of them. But I also love the tips for using time more wisely and I'm aiming to finish the book today so I can review what I do and when.

Enjoy!
Rosemary

Author Inspiration: Gilly Stewart

I’m delighted to welcome Scottish-based author Gilly Stewart to the Reading and Writing blog today. Gilly lives down in beautiful Dumfriesshire and her lovely début novel, Sunshine Through the Rain is now published by Accent Press. Gilly kindly agreed to share the inspiration behind the story. But first a little about the book.

When your family need a favour, you can't refuse, can you?
Ellen is settled in Edinburgh when one day her sister begs a favour: can she come and look after her farm and three children while she has a much-deserved holiday. Ellen loves her nieces and nephews, but the animals are a bit of a worry…
After a manic yet fun weekend, her world is shattered when a freak accident kills her sister and leaves her as the children’s legal guardian. Ellen never asked for children, nor to run a farm, but now she's in charge of both. Desperately juggling her responsibilities, Ellen is driven to find a compromise between her old life and her new: one the children will accept, and that will allow her to keep something of herself as well.
Into the mix is thrown their neighbour, handsome, brooding Kit. He’s more than willing to help out on the farm, but not so willing to open up to Ellen …
Inspiration Behind the Story
What happens when you are stuck on a farm, alone with two young-ish children, trying to cope with both them and the animals, and feeling like you haven’t got a clue about either?
This was the position I was in a few years ago and it was what sparked the writing of Sunshine Through The Rain. Of course, my situation wasn’t as drastic as Ellen’s. I only felt like I was a single parent – my husband was home occasionally! And they were my own darling children. I hadn’t been landed with them due to a family tragedy, as happens to Ellen. But my own position presented me with that question writers so love: what would it feel like if …? If you were in this position, but it was worse? If it interrupted your own carefully planned life? If you had no choice but to cope with something so outwith your comfort zone?
One thing I definitely shared with Ellen was the not-knowing-much-about -animals. Believe it or not, despite owning 4 dogs and 3 cats I’m not really an animal person. And farm animals were definitely not my thing. They were big, and unpredictable, and there were lots of them and only one of me. The incident with Ellen and the horse actually happened to me more or less as I described it. It was scary and I was so worried about the horse, but I was also thinking ‘why I am being left to cope with this?’ I was watching the action in my head, making a scene in a book even as I lived through it.
My oldest son is much better with the animals than I am, and although he isn’t like Angus in any other way I did use this unexpected competence in a teenager as part of Angus’s character. I think it makes a nice contrast with the much less useful adult.
And the inspiration for Kit? Well, I’d had him in mind for a while. He is based on a footballer I’ve always had a soft spot for, one with shaggy hair and dreamy eyes but also a real warmth (I won’t name him!). He was perfect for Ellen’s new neighbour. It wouldn’t work if he was a farmer, but he needed to know a lot about animals. Bingo! Kit was a vet.
I hope people enjoy reading Sunshine Through The Rain as much as I enjoyed writing it. As with so many things we write, it’s a version of what could have been my reality. And they say write what you know – (mis)managing a farm was something I certainly knew about!
Sunshine Through The Rain is available from Amazon UK and US in e-book and print.
Gilly Stewart was born in Lancashire and lived in Yorkshire and Cheshire until the age of 15, when her family moved to South Africa. At 21 she moved to France, and then tried Zimbabwe before finding the perfect country: Scotland. She has had many jobs including au pair, cleaner, teacher and accountant, but her first love has always been writing. She has had four romantic novellas published under the pen-name Gillian Villiers and in March 2015 she published her first Young Adult novel Music and Lies under the pen-name Gill-Marie Stewart
Sunshine Through The Rain is her first women’s contemporary novel and is published by Accent Press. They will be bringing out her second novel, The Lost Woman, in July 2015.
Gilly lives on a farm in rural Dumfriesshire with five chickens, four dogs, three cats, a husband and many, many books. Her two student sons deign to visit occasionally.

You can connect with Gilly on her Website, Facebook, or Twitter @GillStewart2 

Newsletter and Summer of the Eagles

That's my latest newsletter away to subscribers yesterday. In this one, I'm giving away a signed copy of republished tween book, Summer of the Eagles, to the winner of the three questions I asked (just for subscribers). If you'd like to receive the newsletter, just pop your email address in the box on the side of the blog!

I regained the rights and it's now available again on Amazon with a new e-book cover and in print from FeedARead or from me. It's popular with grown-ups too! This one is under my Ros name. Here's the blurb.


When 13 year old Stephanie (Stevie) is orphaned and slightly lamed in a terrible accident, her life completely changes and her dreams of ever running for Scotlandare over. Her Gran is soon no longer able to cope with Stevie’s moods, and sends her to an aunt on a Scottish island.
Although she gradually makes new friends and finds an interest in the bird sanctuary, Stevie is soon in danger from two bird poachers intent on harming the eagles. But who is the strange eagle-boy in the hills, who protects the eagles and helps Stevie to heal? And does he have anything to do with the painted rocks and legends on the island?

Writing and Publishing Information and Advice

The IndieReCon online conference I mention two posts ago was an inspiring and information-filled three days. I couldn't keep up with all the great advice and videos and I've still one or two to access today. Some are more relevant to different authors but all have nuggets of practical advice that I'm aiming to put into action at some point.

I've also mentioned Pinterest before and Jay Artale's video on this was excellent. I hadn't realised just how much it's taken off for authors and it's one of the fastest growing sites. I still love the visual aspect of it. You can read Jay's presentation here.

Another very useful session was with multi-million selling American authors Bella Andre and Barbara Freethy - I've heard them before but listened to their fascinating discussion about being two of the most successful self-published authors and their tips on moving forward.

Have a look at the whole programme if you're interested in any of the other sessions - they're going to remain accessible for a while yet.

Rosemary