Debbie Young's Blog, page 47

Multimedia Me

Highlighting my recent appearances on local radio and YouTube

Well, every website needs the occasional cat photo, doesn’t it?

With my working life revolving around the written word, and much of my day spent sitting silently bashing a computer keyboard, it’s always refreshing (to me, at least) to have opportunities to communicate in other ways.

As a naturally chatty type (the kindest way to put it), I’m always pleased to be invited to give talks on any aspect of self-publishing, book marketing or writing (see my current list of events here).

I’m hoping to produce my own podcasts in future, inspired by great role models such as Joanna Penn, who interviewed me on one of her own podcasts recently (see this previous post).

I’m also quick to embrace any opportunity to appear on broadcast media. Today I thought you might like the links to my two most recent appearances.

BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book Club (10th March 2015)

It’s always a pleasure to nip up to the BBC Radio Gloucestershire studios to feature on one of their shows. On Monday of last week, I joined my friend Caroline Sanderson, another local author who is also an Associate Editor of The Bookseller magazine, on the lunchtime slot for their new Book Club slot.

Presenter Claire Carter, a live wire with an enquiring mind, is a self-confessed reluctant reader. As I learned when I worked for thec children’s reading charity Readathon, the multiple benefits of a leisure reading habit are well-documented. Not only are regular readers more successful in their education and careers, but they also form more satisfying personal relationships, better social skills and are more contented. Claire’s decision to share her determination to become a regular reader will, I’m sure, inspire many others to do so too, stimulated by lively discussion on her show.

The BBC Radio Gloucestershire Book Club will run once a month, usually with Caroline and/or me in the studio, with occasional visits from other local authors. (There are a lot of us about in these parts!) Each month we’ll choose a book to read for the following month’s discussion. We’ll be choosing books that are readily available in paperback, to buy from bookshops and to borrow from libraries, and which are likely to appeal to a wide audience, while also stimulating comments and feedback.

This month, we were talking about Matt Haig’s The Humans, a sweet, funny and touching tale about an alien who takes over the body of an Oxford professor of mathematics. If you’d like to know how we got on with it, you can catch the show here on BBC iPlayer for the next couple of weeks. (The Book Club slot runs between 12noon and 1pm).

 

Next month’s Book Club will be on Claire’s show from midday on Wednesday 8th April, and we’ll be talking about The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. If you’ve read it and would like to share your view, or would like to share any book-related thoughts with listeners, tweet the show at @BBCGlos.

Ingram Spark YouTube Video

Back in November, I had great fun at the Indie Author Fair that ran alongside the Chorleywood Literature Festival. The amazing Triskele Books team, who masterminded the event in partnership with ALLi, set up the opportunity for indie authors to be interviewed by Andy Bromley of Ingram, the book distributor responsible for the publishing and distribution services Lightning Source and Ingram Spark, through which many indie authors, myself included, publish their books.

The Ingram team improvised a recording studio at the back of the community hall in which our event was running, and I was very pleased to secure one of the interview slots. Last week I received the final edit of the interview, which Ingram have now posted on their YouTube channel, and which I’m please to share with you here:

 

But for now, I’m stepping back out of the limelight and getting back to my keyboard. So much to type, so little time!

 

 

 

 

Filed under: BBC Radio Gloucestershire, broadcast media, writing, YouTube Tagged: BBC Radio Gloucestershire, book club, Claire Carter, Indie Author Fair, Ingram Content, Ingram Spark, Lightning Source, markus zusak, matt haig, radio, Triskele Books

Finally Facing My Waterloo 2015

Originally written for the March 2015 issue of the Tetbury Advertiser, this post previews the Friends of St Mary’s Waterloo Ball.

“ABBA – TopPop 1974 5″ by AVRO – FTA001019454_012 from Beeld & Geluid wiki. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Until last autumn, if in a word association game I was given “Waterloo”, I’d probably have responded “ABBA”. I vividly remember watching the Swedish pop group win the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 and thinking it was a life-changing moment. (In my defence, I was only 14.)

My second response would have been “Charing Cross”, because Waterloo East was the next station out of London on the branch line to Sidcup, where I lived until the year of Abba’s victory. And I’d defy anyone to think of the Duke of Wellington without also picturing Wellington boots.

At Peace with Tolstoy

I fear my historical ignorance adds point to the government’s plan to focus the school history curriculum on major historic milestones. In my day, history lessons jumped from the Black Death to the First World War, leaving me to fill the void with details gleaned from books and museums. The most I knew about the Napoleonic Wars came from reading Tolstoy’s War and Peace for a bet about 25 years ago.

This is why the Battle of Waterloo was low on my radar until just before Christmas, when a friend told me about the Waterloo Ball, to be held at Westonbirt School on Friday 19th June to mark the Battle’s bicentenary.

My crass response: “Who will know or care about that?” I recognise that in British eyes, the Battle of Waterloo is A Good Thing because we won it, but for me it had much less resonance than last year’s centenary of the outbreak of the First World War, with which I felt a personal connection. I had met relatives affected by it, such as my Great Great Auntie Edie, widowed at a young age by the Great War.

My Ticket to Waterloo

I’ve now realised the error of my ways. Especially in an election year, we should not underestimate the significance of what the strapline of the Waterloo 200 campaign describes as: “A Defining Moment in European History”.

Hawkesbury Upton’s reminder of the Battle of Waterloo

So in preparation for this great event, I’m reading up on it, with a local reference as my starting point: the Somerset Monument in Hawkesbury Upton, built to commemorate a local man’s distinguished service at the Battle of Waterloo.

My research is already proving more entertaining than I’d expected, uncovering anecdotal gems such as the Duke of Wellington’s remarking to the Earl of Uxbridge, riding horseback beside him during the Battle:  “By god, sir, you’ve lost your leg.” “By god, sir, so I have,” came the reply.

Now that kind of British pluck is definitely worth celebrating.

The stunning venue for the Waterloo Ball

If you’d like to join me at the Waterloo Ball on 19th June, tickets are now on sale from the Friends of St Mary’s, Hawkesbury, at the quaint price of 60 guineas a head.

To find out more about the national celebrations of the bicentenary, visit the official government website, www.waterloo2015.org , or follow @Waterloo2015_BE on Twitter.

For a great novel on the theme of the Battle of Waterloo (and rather shorter than War and Peace), read my friend David Ebsworth‘s The%20Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour: A Novel of WaterlooThe Last Campaign of Marianne Tambour.

Filed under: Tetbury Advertiser Tagged: David Ebsworth, Friends of St Mary's, Hawkesbury Upton, Somerset Monument, Tetbury Advertiser, War and Peace, Waterloo

The Unsung Services of Our Village Shop

(Originally written for the March edition of the Hawkesbury Parish News, this post praises our village shop and encourages people everywhere to shop local)

Shop this way….

“I’m sending you a tall dark handsome man.”

So I was told when I popped in to the Hawkesbury Shop to collect my regular Hobbs House bread order the other week. Hmm, now there’s a new service I didn’t know about, I thought, wondering what my husband would make of it.

I run the shop’s secondhand book stall, in aid of the village school PTA and the village shop

It turned out that the staff had been chatting to a new customer who had recently moved to the area. When they discovered he was writing a book, they told him he ought to meet me, as they knew I help fellow authors publish and promote their books. The result: I’ve acquired a new and interesting friend, who I’ve introduced to other friends, including some who are helping him find accommodation.  And the shop has another satisfied customer.

Supporting local traders

This episode illustrates just one of many unsung services offered by our village shop. Earlier this week I discovered another one. When the school bus was an hour late on a very cold Monday morning, the children whose parents had already left for work were allowed to wait safely inside the shop till the bus eventually appeared. How comforting for working parents to know that in such a crisis, the shop steps into the rescue.

So support your local shop, folks, because it supports our village community in so many ways, often with no financial reward. Tesco and co, take note: kindness to customers is one thing that money can’t buy.

Bread from the famous Hobbs House Baker Boys

Filed under: Hawkesbury Parish News, lifestyle, shopping Tagged: shop local, village shop

Putting the Up in Sidcup

(This post about revisitng Sidcup, where I was born and raised, was originally written for the February 2015 issue of the Tetbury Advertiser)

 

View from the village in which I live now

“Quaint”, “timeless”, “historic” – all of these epithets will drip from the lips of tourists as they return to the Cotswolds, their numbers growing as the days lengthen. They will inevitably marvel at the ancient architecture and landscape that we take for granted, and they will boost the local economy via our tourist attractions and shops. (That’s always my excuse for splashing out when I’m on holiday: “Just boosting the local economy, dear”.)

When I first visited the Cotswolds decades ago, I would have been one of those tourists. Now that I’ve lived here for nearly a quarter of a century, a refugee from London suburbia, I realise the area is not as static as it looks. Edge-of-town superstores have effected a sea-change, while high streets evolve less perceptibly but just as unstoppably. I can’t even remember now what preceded Tetbury’s Tardis-like Yellow-Lighted Bookshop (was it the bike shop?), which feels and looks, in the nicest possible way, as if it’s been there forever, and I’m glad that it’s there. The same goes for Hobbs House Bakery.

While some changes will always be more welcome than others, it’s natural to be sceptical and even fearful if too much changes too fast, even though change often brings fresh blood, new ideas and younger populations to keep cherished traditions and old institutions alive.

The house in which I lived from ages 3-14

A recent trip to the land of my birth – Sidcup, Kent, on the edge of London’s urban sprawl – made me look afresh at the nature of change in residential areas. Many years ago, I was outraged to discover that half the garden of the house I grew up in had been sold to developers. A three-bed semi on a corner plot in a 1930s garden suburb, it had the generous proportions that came as standard in an era when housebuilding land was cheap and plentiful. Building a new house on that plot required the demolition of my old swing, my father’s garage and his beautiful rose bed. I was outraged.

Where I was born

Revisiting just before Christmas with a more mature eye, I noticed that newcomers had addded style, substance and care to the whole neighbourhood – double glazing, extensions, new doors, smart signage. Even the humble bungalow where I was born had been extended upwards and outwards and had expensive cars on the drive. As a child, I travelled everywhere by bus. The area had leapt upmarket, yet the many parks and green spaces remained. I found myself thinking: “What a lovely place to bring up a child!”

 

Where my maternal grandparents lived

So I started the New Year feeling twice blessed for the double life I have led: half in the suburbs, half in the country, and grateful for the subtle changes that help both places to evolve and survive for future generations to enjoy.

Where my paternal grandparents lived

My secondary school

My primary school

Do you ever revisit the place you grew up? Or do you prefer to keep your memories intact? I’d love to hear your story. 

 

Filed under: family, Tetbury Advertiser, travel Tagged: Cotswolds, memoir, nostalgia, Sidcup, Tetbury, Tetbury Advertiser, urban development

My Interview on the Prestigious Creative Penn Website

A new post about my appearance on Joanna Penn’s Creative Penn website/podcast/videocast

Joanna Penn, authorpreneur

Not 15 minutes of fame, but 45 minutes for me today, as my recent interview with the author and entrepreneur Joanna Penn goes live on her fabulous Creative Penn website.

Joanna invited me to appear on her prestigious online show to talk about the work I do with the Alliance of Independent Authors, the not-for-profit global organisation of whose advice blog I’m Commissioning Editor, and for who last year I co-authored an important book facilitating better relationships between self-published authors and the book trade: Opening Up To Indie Authors. We’re both members of ALLi and our paths often cross at events and online in the world of self-publishing.

My latest book, co-authored with Dan Holloway, explains more about the book trade

Joanna, who was an early adopter and trailblazer of self-publishing in its modern form, is a seasoned podcaster, with a back catalogue of over 200 podcasts available on her website, but for me this was a first.

Although I really enjoyed chatting with Joanna online, I was nervous of how the final podcast would turn out, knowing it was going to run as both an audio and a video broadcast. This is not least because I am never entirely on top of the technology with my computer, hence the slightly ghostly look to me in the video, while Joanna is wreathed in a much healthier golden glow!

However, I’m really pleased with the result – and astonished at how much information we fitted in to the session, which seemed to fly by on the day. Big thanks to Joanna for her time and attention, and for this opportunity to share ALLi’s messages and my own thoughts on her prestigious platform.

VIDEO LINK

To watch the video on YouTube, click here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xofWBleDf4

PODCAST LINK

To read a summary of the key points and listen to the audio podcast, click here:

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2015/02/26/bookstores-debbie-young/

MORE ABOUT JOANNA PENN

If you’re an aspiring authorpreneur in search of a great role model, follow Joanna’s blog and read her non-fiction books here:

www.thecreativepenn.com

If you love to read supernatural thrillers, check out her fiction site here:

www.jfpenn.com

Filed under: self-publishing, The Alliance of Independent Authors, writing Tagged: bookshops, bookstores, Joanna Penn, Opening Up To Indie Authors, self-publishing

Special Offer for My Next Public Event

A quick and practical post sharing a special offer for anyone interested in attending an event I’m speaking at in March

Sharing “Jess the Goth Fairy” with MA students at Winchester University last month

Never shy of speaking in public, I’m taking a growing number of bookings to speak at public events about writing and publishing.

For anyone wanting to know where I’m likely to pop up next, I’m keeping an updated list available on the new Events page of this website – consider yourself forewarned! The page also serves as a handy note-to-self, to remind me where I’m meant to be when!

Next Stop: Kingston Publishing Conference

My next gig will be at Kingston University, near London, as part of a one-day conference provocatively entitled “Is everyone a publisher now?” This event is being staged by Dr Alison Baverstock, who is course director of the MA in Publishing at Kingston. Alison is a highly regarded and hugely knowledgeable figure in the world of publishing, so little wonder that she’s had no trouble assembling a great line-up for industry experts and commentators (oh, and me!)

Alison has written heaps of great books for authors, publishers and other audiences. You can find out about those and all her other activities on her website here: www.alisonbaverstock.com. She also generously provided an authoritative foreword for my first book for authors, Sell Your Books!, which was published by SilverWood Books in 2012.

Here’s what delegates will gain from this conference:

An update on the publishing and writing landscape. However long established or recent your writing career, this is information you need to know
Practical guidance on how to think about preparing your material for publication – what to do and in what order, how much time and money to allocate
The chance to make key connections and gather a support network that will be highly valuable to you in future – and help you sustain your creative practice

All this in just one day!

Special Discount for my Friends

If you’re interested in attending the event, good news: I can share with you a special discount code that will save you £40 if you book before the end of February. The link below will take you to the booking form, as well as full details of the programme. Just enter the discount code “Partner” at the checkout to claim your discounted rate. (The bad news: it’ll still cost you £90, but hey, it’s a great deal to get all those benefits in a single day, it’s even cheaper than the early-bird discount that was being offered till the end of January, AND you’ll get a free copy of Alison’s book The Naked Author!)

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/is-everyone-now-a-publisher-an-important-single-day-course-for-all-authors-tickets-4973074600

To keep abreast of my future events and new books, click here to join my mailing list. 

Filed under: writing

February is the Sleepiest Month

My column for the February issue of Hawkesbury Parish News

(with apologies to T S Eliot for parodying the opening line of “The Waste Land”)

Like mother, like daughter: Laura’s first encounter with February

Sorry, February, but you are my least favourite month. You kick in when Christmas starts to feel like a distant memory. At least January has the saving grace of including my birthday. But with longer days not yet with us, and weather too grim to entice us outside, the only thing you’ve got going for you is your brevity.

I was therefore interested to read in the press this week of research suggesting the benefits of hibernation. What a great way to bypass February!

Scientists report that the long winter sleep of squirrels switches off their brains, resting their synapses without deleting any information. When the squirrels wake up in spring, they can still remember where they buried their nuts. With my senior moments increasing, especially since turning a year older last month, there couldn’t be a better time for me to give hibernation a try.

So if you don’t spot me out and about in the village this month, you’ll know what’s keeping me off the streets. Just tiptoe past my house until 1st March. That’s when I’ll be emerging, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. And possibly snacking on nuts.

If you need something cheery to read,

with a springlike feel to get you through February,

check out my collection of ultra-short stories, Quick%20Change: Tiny Tales of Transformation Quick Change   

Filed under: Hawkesbury Parish News, humour Tagged: April is the cruellest month, February, hibernation, March, spring, T S Eliot, The Waste Land, winter

Making the Earth Move with my Winchester Lecture

A post about my recent guest lecture at the University of Winchester on the night the earth moved

Playing to a packed house at the University of Winchester

As part of my involvement with the Alliance of Independent Authors, I take part in all kinds of bookish events, such as literary festivals and lectures. This week saw my first gig as a guest speaker at the University of Winchester, which runs prestigious MA courses in Creative and Critical Writing, attracting students to its lectures from as far afield as Oxfordshire and Kent.

Actually, it was two gigs: first of all, a 90-minute talk about how to self-publish to a professional standard, as part of the university’s Reading Series of public lectures, followed by a 75-minute seminar with MA students talking about blogging for authors. Both were organised by the Course Director Judith Heneghan, who it turned out shares an alma mater with me, the University of York.

Speaking on Self-Publishing

“All hail, Hugh Howey, prince among self-publishers!”

The large lecture theatre was packed with authors and aspiring self-publishers of all ages, and there were plenty of questions at the end, which is always gratifying.

The more intimate second session was also more interactive, during which I showcased some typical author blogs, including my own, before we discussed some of the students’ own blogs, each of which had its own charms and merits.

I really enjoyed finding out more about the students’ work, and before I left, I agreed with the course director, Judith Heneghan, to provide one-to-one website critique sessions at the Winchester Writers’ Festival on 20th June, when I’ll also be providing a quick-fire Q&A session about self-publishing for the general public.

The Litmus Test of Students’ Writing

I also interested to learn about the students’ annual printed anthology, Litmus, which showcases samples of all of their work. By chance, they’d just set up a new blog to promote it, as well as a Twitter account at Litmus2015. If you’d like to do your bit to encourage emerging authors, please pop over to visit their blog www.litmus2015.wordpress.com and “like” or “follow” it if you feel so inclined. It’s clearly a blog for the discerning, because, whaddya know, it features a piece about my visit!

Well, I always wanted to be a librarian when I was little

I’m rather hoping they’ll send me a copy of the 2015 Litmus anthology when it comes out, as I’d love to read it to review on my brand-new book blog, which I’ve just unveiled here:

www.DebbieYoungsBookBlog.com

(I like an obvious name, me) 

I rolled home from Winchester, feeling rather tired after the 170-mle round trip. Pleasant though the journey was in daylight, it was wearying after dark, and I was glad to get to bed, duty done.

The After-Shock

“Steady, girl!”

But imagine my surprise that almost the first word I heard on the radio-alarm in the morning was “Winchester” – not usually featured on the national news headlines.

The context? Apparently, half an hour into my first lecture, there’d been an earthquake in the town. I confess I didn’t notice it while I was there – maybe that was the moment I was steadying myself on the desk here – but I’m wondering whether the earth moving is the reason that I only spotted one person nodding off in the audience all evening. Well, I’m happy with that!

(All pictures taken at Winchester courtesy of one of the course students – thank you)

To keep up to date with my other planned events and speaking engagements, visit the Events page on this website.

If you enjoyed this post, you might also like to read my reports on other recent speaking engagements:

Cambridge Literature Festival 2014

London Book Fair 2014

SilverWood Books Open Day September 2014

Filed under: blogging, events, self-publishing, writing Tagged: MA Creative Writing, MA Writing for Children, University of Winchester

What to Write and Where to Write It

A short post about the influence of place on writing, with reference to my new two-desk writing strategy

My business desk

If you ever spot me at the kitchen table, pen in hand, you can be pretty sure I’m writing a shopping list.

At the fold-out table in my camper van, with a spiral-bound notebook in front of me, chances are I’ll be writing a travel-inspired post for my blog to share an anecdote or observation that could only have arisen on the move. Like the time we found a dead body on holiday. Yep, fact, not fiction, folks – you can read about that incident here.

Sat at my computer desk, I’ll be stoking up the blog I edit for the the Alliance of Independent Authors, or plodding through a vast action list reflecting my multi-faceted self-employed life. Least likely task of all: bookkeeping, but with the help of adrenaline triggered by Saturday’s HMRC deadline, I’ll be thundering through my tax return this week.

With so much on my to-do list, I’ve realised that none of these places are very conducive to fiction writing, despite my motivational screensaver telling me to “Use your time wisely: write”. That’s a shame, because that’s what I most love to write.

Call Me Debbie Two Desks

Inspiration corner: my writing desk

So today I’ve arrived at a new strategy. Call me Debbie Two Desks if you like, (shades of Monty Python’s wonderful Arthur Two Sheds Jackson – catch up with him on YouTube here), but I’ve just cleared my grandpa’s old bureau to create a new creative writing corner in my study.

On top of the desk is the old statuette of a man reading a book, which I learned to love when it graced his mantlepiece throughout my childhood. The pull-down flap is just big enough to accomodate either an old-fashioned paper notebook, or my ancient computer netbook, which is too slow and cumbersome to tempt me to surf the net instead of writing.

So far, so good – I sat down at it this morning and wrote “Snoring”, one of the stories destined for a collection called Marry In Haste, a lighthearted collection of humorous stories about partnerships dogged by odd foibles. I’m hoping to publish it this spring. Will my new strategy work long-term? Watch this space, and you’ll soon see…

My grandma’s family heirloom

Like to know more about my little reading man statue? Find out how and why he motivates me here. 

Filed under: writing Tagged: reading, where to write, writing, writing desk, writing fiction

Far from Retiring (Nor Am I Shy)

A post-birthday post about my busy life and why I’m not retiring any time soon, despite reaching 55

My friend Diana’s career had been in accountancy, and she is a brilliant budgeter. After I’d reeled off this list, she looked at me calmly and said: “You’re doing too much. When do you ever sleep? Go home and have a rest. Take the rest of today off.”

As I drove home trying to stop my eyes crossing from sleep deprivation, I realised that she was absolutely right.

When I got home to find a letter from the insurance company asking me whether I was ready to take my retirement payout, now that I’d hit 55, or whether I wanted to defer, there was only one realistic choice. I phoned them straight away.

“Please defer the policy,” I told them. “I shan’t be retiring any time soon.”

We agreed they’d review the policy each year from now on, and be in touch this time next year to ask whether I’m ready to retire.

But I think I already know the answer.

If you enjoyed this birthday post, you may also like these from my archive:

The Only Certainty in Life: Birthdays and Taxes (on my mum’s 80th birthday)

There’s No Time Like the (Birthday) Present (on discovering the elixir of immortality – allegedly)

To be kept informed about all my news and events,

Filed under: nostalgia, work Tagged: impact of technology on working, retirement, retirement age, work life balance, working from home