Julia Ibbotson's Blog, page 2
November 13, 2014
S.C.A.R.S giveaway!
Giveaway now open! Four signed copies of S.C.A.R.S to be given away in time for Christmas, ends 17 December. get your skates on and sign up to enter now! Good luck!
November 12, 2014
S.C.A.R.S
My new fantasy children's book is out here on Goodreads and available as paperback and ebook on Amazon and most other retailers. It's about a boy who slips through the fabric of the universe to find himself in a medieval world of dragons and knights fighting against the evil of Myrthor, the heart of darkness. Take a look and see what you think!It will also shortly be available on a Goodreads giveaway for November to December, in time for Christmas!
October 21, 2014
The Old Rectory giveaway
241 entries already in 2 days for the Goodreads giveaway of The Old Rectory: escape to a country kitchen, my feelgood renovation memoir/recipe cookbook! Excellent news. Read some lovely reviews and ratings on Goodreads and Amazon. 4 signed copies to be mailed to the lucky winners. Many thanks to all those who have already entered and "get your skates on" to those who haven't yet clicked; the giveaway ends on 24th November, so you'll get it for Christmas.
October 6, 2014
691 entries!
My mistake! There were 691 entries to the Drumbeats giveaway (not 619)! Thank you so much to all those who entered and to the four winners of signed copies of the paperback edition which will be winging their way shortly towards addresses in London, Nova Scotia Canada and TN USA!
Thank you!
Many thanks to the 619 people who entered the giveaway for a signed copy of Drumbeats; what a fantastic response!Do read the book and post a review if you feel you can; that would be wonderful.
The four winners will be receiving their copies shortly. I am just preparing their parcels. Two for London England, one for Nova Scotia Canada, and one for TN USA. I hope you all enjoy the novel and feel like posting a review. Many thanks.
I'm in the process of writing the second novel in the series, called Walking in the Rain, so please look out for it when it hits the shelves next summer.
The four winners will be receiving their copies shortly. I am just preparing their parcels. Two for London England, one for Nova Scotia Canada, and one for TN USA. I hope you all enjoy the novel and feel like posting a review. Many thanks.
I'm in the process of writing the second novel in the series, called Walking in the Rain, so please look out for it when it hits the shelves next summer.
September 11, 2014
Goodreads giveaway of Romance Readers' Awards shortlisted novel!
Get your skates on! Only 20 days to go now, and 165+ people have already registered for a free giveaway copy of Drumbeats on Goodreads. Don't miss out, go to the link below and request a copy. I just ask that you consider writing a brief review, if that's possible, on Goodreads and/or Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com . That would be brilliant! Thank you. Please also feel free to get in touch with me via my website with any comments on my latest novel at www.juliaibbotsonauthor.com
I've just heard that Drumbeats has been shortlisted for the Romance Readers' Awards at the Festival of Romance Fiction 2014! I'm thrilled as it was only released in July.
It's my debut novel, although I've written lots before (including The Old Rectory which won best biography at London Book Festival 2012) I've not published a novel until now. I already know some bits that I could have improved - oh dear, I'm such a self-critic! See what you think ...but please be gentle with me!
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
I've just heard that Drumbeats has been shortlisted for the Romance Readers' Awards at the Festival of Romance Fiction 2014! I'm thrilled as it was only released in July.
It's my debut novel, although I've written lots before (including The Old Rectory which won best biography at London Book Festival 2012) I've not published a novel until now. I already know some bits that I could have improved - oh dear, I'm such a self-critic! See what you think ...but please be gentle with me!
https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/sh...
July 2, 2013
Remember the 1960s?
The Rolling Stones at Glastonbury! Well who remembers the 1960s? Sadly, me! Or those of us who weren't around then but have fallen in love with the era since? The era of the Rolling Stones, of course, the Beatles, the Kinks, the Spencer Davis Group. Who remembers dancing with mad arms and wriggles to the strains of Roll over Beethoven, Love Me Do, Get Offa My Cloud, Honky Tonk Woman, or smooching to Hey, hey baby, I wanna know-ow-ow if you'll be my girl, Roy Orbison's Cryin' (over you)? The era of monochrome mini skirts, oversized sunglasses, the Mary Quant full-fringed bob, and white knee high laced boots? Otis Redding's Dock of the Bay, or the Tremalos' Hippie Hippie Shake at the Saturday night "hop"?
My new novel that's due out this autumn, Drumbeats, the first of a trilogy, is set in the 1960s and I've been doing my research and rummaging in my cupboards over the past few months, finding memorabilia, old photographs, books, diaries, letters...A friend of mine, Pauline Barclay, of FamousFivePlus.com, has also just published a book set in the 1960s, I 1965 to be precise, and she asked me to write a piece for her new blog publicising her book, Storm Clouds gathering. It was to be commemorating 1965 and reflecting upon memories. I decided to send her a couple of the photos I unearthed for my book, and she has published them, along with my text, on The Hippie Shake at http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.co.uk...
My contribution to Pauline's site and my book Drumbeats is about West Africa, Ghana, to be precise. The photos are genuine authentic pics, taken on my old Brownie camera at the time, and which had then been printed as transparencies/slides for me to use for the talks I gave when I returned to the UK. Technology over the past 50 years has progressed of course, and I never though that I'd be able to use them now. But last year I hit upon a wonderful device (the Busbie) which enables me to digitalise the slides as pics on my computer! So this is about the first of them, as a taster for my new book.
Drumbeats is about Jess 18, who flees to escape her stifling family to Ghana as a volunteer teacher and nurse in the African bush. She's on a gap year before going on to university and a career. The book is about love and loss, adventure and tragedy, and it's the story of coming of age, growing up, and finding yourself.
So, to the first photo I sent Pauline. It's of my first steps on African soil, the Airport Hotel in Accra, where I spent my first night in Ghana. We landed late, after dark, but it was so hot that the chocolate I had bought on the plane melted. The air was full of the noises of drumbeats, cicadas and mosquitos. I ate groundnut stew and pounded fufu for dinner, followed by pureed pawpaw, and it was delicious! I went to bed under a mosquito net for the first time in my life, and couldn't believe how hot it was. Even the next morning at 7 o' clock the temperature was over 94 degrees. Coming from the UK where it was 15 degrees, it was incredible.
How the memories come flooding back...but now to my own novel...
My new novel that's due out this autumn, Drumbeats, the first of a trilogy, is set in the 1960s and I've been doing my research and rummaging in my cupboards over the past few months, finding memorabilia, old photographs, books, diaries, letters...A friend of mine, Pauline Barclay, of FamousFivePlus.com, has also just published a book set in the 1960s, I 1965 to be precise, and she asked me to write a piece for her new blog publicising her book, Storm Clouds gathering. It was to be commemorating 1965 and reflecting upon memories. I decided to send her a couple of the photos I unearthed for my book, and she has published them, along with my text, on The Hippie Shake at http://paulinembarclay.blogspot.co.uk...
My contribution to Pauline's site and my book Drumbeats is about West Africa, Ghana, to be precise. The photos are genuine authentic pics, taken on my old Brownie camera at the time, and which had then been printed as transparencies/slides for me to use for the talks I gave when I returned to the UK. Technology over the past 50 years has progressed of course, and I never though that I'd be able to use them now. But last year I hit upon a wonderful device (the Busbie) which enables me to digitalise the slides as pics on my computer! So this is about the first of them, as a taster for my new book.
Drumbeats is about Jess 18, who flees to escape her stifling family to Ghana as a volunteer teacher and nurse in the African bush. She's on a gap year before going on to university and a career. The book is about love and loss, adventure and tragedy, and it's the story of coming of age, growing up, and finding yourself.
So, to the first photo I sent Pauline. It's of my first steps on African soil, the Airport Hotel in Accra, where I spent my first night in Ghana. We landed late, after dark, but it was so hot that the chocolate I had bought on the plane melted. The air was full of the noises of drumbeats, cicadas and mosquitos. I ate groundnut stew and pounded fufu for dinner, followed by pureed pawpaw, and it was delicious! I went to bed under a mosquito net for the first time in my life, and couldn't believe how hot it was. Even the next morning at 7 o' clock the temperature was over 94 degrees. Coming from the UK where it was 15 degrees, it was incredible.
How the memories come flooding back...but now to my own novel...
June 11, 2013
Drumbeats: a writer's difficulties with getting down to writing!
I am now engaged in writing a trilogy on the life story of my new character Jess. It starts with the first novel, set in the mid-1960s in Africa where 18 year old English student, Jess, has fled her stifling background to become a volunteer for her gap year between school and university. But she finds herself instead becoming embroiled in civil war, an unexpected romance, and the tragedy that ensues. The book follows her life-changing experiences set against the backdrop of a small war-torn West African nation.
And, yes, although it is a novel, and therefore “made up”, it is based, in some measure, on my own experiences in Ghana, where I worked as a volunteer, so there’s a lot of authentic first-hand observations of the country, its wonders and its tragedies. The book is called Drumbeats and it will be available through Amazon and all the usual channels, as a paperback and ebook for kindle, later this year.
I have the background info, I have the authentic letters, I have the photos and memories, I have my diary/journal/log, and I have great times reliving the times and the country. But I am finding it really hard to resume from half way through, without going back and editing yet again because I'm not satisfied!
Why would my character Jess have been so affected by Jim's piano playing when he plays his arrangement for piano of Mozart's clarinet concerto in A?
How can I show her relationship with "the guy she left behind" and how important it was to her, when she is so affected by Jim?
Is the wonder of the country, especially at that time in history, coming through strongly enough to the reader? Am I making it real and "visible" to my readers? Can they really "see" it all?
Is the effect that the poverty Jess sees haunting enough for the readers? Are they emotionally affected by the descriptions and events?
Some days I think that the title Drumbeats actually reflects the drumming of the phrase (amended from the original for my own purposes!) "so many ideas, so little time!"
My publisher's waiting....!
And, yes, although it is a novel, and therefore “made up”, it is based, in some measure, on my own experiences in Ghana, where I worked as a volunteer, so there’s a lot of authentic first-hand observations of the country, its wonders and its tragedies. The book is called Drumbeats and it will be available through Amazon and all the usual channels, as a paperback and ebook for kindle, later this year.
I have the background info, I have the authentic letters, I have the photos and memories, I have my diary/journal/log, and I have great times reliving the times and the country. But I am finding it really hard to resume from half way through, without going back and editing yet again because I'm not satisfied!
Why would my character Jess have been so affected by Jim's piano playing when he plays his arrangement for piano of Mozart's clarinet concerto in A?
How can I show her relationship with "the guy she left behind" and how important it was to her, when she is so affected by Jim?
Is the wonder of the country, especially at that time in history, coming through strongly enough to the reader? Am I making it real and "visible" to my readers? Can they really "see" it all?
Is the effect that the poverty Jess sees haunting enough for the readers? Are they emotionally affected by the descriptions and events?
Some days I think that the title Drumbeats actually reflects the drumming of the phrase (amended from the original for my own purposes!) "so many ideas, so little time!"
My publisher's waiting....!
