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Michael Cargill
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Michael Cargill - 2nd edition of Saying Goodbye to Warsaw
So?How long til I get to sin bin a new release thread of your's then?
Ha! I was going to give it until the weekend to see if you'd been able to take a look at it again before making a decision.
Erg.I've barely been able to get all my marking done, Mike.
I was told I'd be heading up this class for a month. The month was up last Wednesday. Still no end date in sight.
I'm not complaining. I love the kids and the responsibility, of course. Hard to fit the other bits of my life that I love in as well, though. Teaching isn't a full time job.
It's an all-encompassing life endeavour. Every experience, every conversation, is potentially a teachable moment or something to share with the munchkins or colleagues.
It really hit home this afternoon on the bus ride home. Friday afternoon. Bus full of teachers. What did we chat about? The things we did in class, the achievements our kids made and the joy it brought to us.
Excuse me while I get soppy. :)
No, that's fine. I've got family who are teachers so I know how much time it requires. I'll get cracking this weekend.I'm on my phone so can only be brief but your help so far has been phenomenal.
Oh piffle.Nothing phenomenal about it. When you shared your initial idea it hit a chord as its a subject that fascinates me. I'd read enough of your stuff to know you have great talent as a writer. And by stuff I mean everything from your irreverent posts in our group to your blog posts to your published work.
I felt honoured to be trusted with your manuscript and very disappointed that I couldn't feed back to you as quickly as I was wanted to.
I think you know I gulped the book down in about two days. I found it gripping.
I'm so pleased that our Ignite and Elle-belle read it too.
I know they won't pull punches on what they thought was crap, any more than I would. We only tell it like it is cuz we want our authors to put out the best stuff possible.
If we didn't give a shit, we wouldn't give a shit.
Blimey, that's certainly made my Friday!*bottom lip trembles*
(I'm not apologising for making Elle miss her bus though)
Ha!Don't you dare ever apologise for causing a reader to be immersed in the world you've created with words.
I'm glad I wrote my review on my blog when I read it as it's been so long that I've forgotten what to write (apart from I rather enjoyed it).I'll be interested to find out what I wrote:)
Actually, one of the highlights of my literary career so far is having Joo send me an email to say that she hates me.
I think I only mildly dislike you at the moment ;p :)
My latest book is now available! Hurrah!Set in the Warsaw Ghetto during World War II, it’s a story about the struggle for survival that the Jews had to endure every single day. At the hands of their Nazi tormentors they battled against starvation, disease, and deportations to concentration camps… until some of them decided to fight back.
It's available in ebook and paperback formats, and any reviewers/modmins are welcome to use the Smashwords code below to bag themselves a free copy.
Amazon UK - Kindle and Paperback
Amazon US - Kindle and Paperback
Smashwords - Code for a free copy is SB55G
Like any girl who is loved by her family, Abigail Nussbaum loves to chase butterflies, enjoys lying on her back looking for shapes in the clouds, and happily teaches young children to make daisy chains.
In the eyes of certain people, however, Abigail has committed a heinous crime. The year is 1940; the place is Poland; Abigail happens to be Jewish.
Along with half a million other Jews, Abigail and her family are evicted from their home and forced to live in the bombed out ruins of Warsaw, the Polish capital.
Although a handful decide to fight back, is the uprising strong enough to save Abigail’s spirit?
Congrats Michael, emailed you but I have tweeted and facebooked this release!
Cheers, Lindsay!To be honest I get confused as you post as Lindsay, yet your email display name seems to change between John Taylor and Kiwi...!
Yeah sorry about that. For clarification my name is Lindsay and my nickname is kiwi, I think my friends over here thought they were being original when they gave it to me, me being a New Zealander and all!
Hey Mike!How are your sales of Warsaw?
Hello!Um, just about breaching double figures is the best way to describe sales of Warsaw at the moment.
Early days though, I'm spending a few bob sending out paperback review copies.
Yep, absolutely early days. I'm really pleased that you are concentrating on marketing it.It's the best thing you've written so far, I reckon.
Thanks, it's my favourite of all the books I've written so far as well.
Just please don't stop writing while you market. I'm really looking forward to reading more stuff from you, Mike.Have you anything in the works?
To be honest, what little marketing I'm doing is far from extensive - it's just going through the process of begging bloggers to review it!It's pretty soul destroying so I don't do too much.
I haven't actually started anything new yet but I know what it is I'm going to be doing. It'll be another WWII story but nothing like Warsaw was. Some of the recent books I read threw up some very interesting things that I can work into the story.
Yeah, I can see how flogging a book as an Indie can be soul destroying. Just keep the faith that you've written a great book. If you ever start doubting it, give me a shout. I am more than happy to build you back up.As I've said before, you really showed your strength in characterisation. And the flow from scene to scene was faultless. But I'm sure you know that.
I'm really pleased you have another tale percolating.
Well, your comments here have given me a nice little ego boost!I'm sort of aware that my stories don't have complicated plots or anything like that, and I don't think they ever will.
Blog update time!Seeing as I’m the office fat bitch know-it-all…
http://michaelcargill.wordpress.com/2...
That's bonkers.It's always weird when a fan knows more about my life than I do.
Yeah, he emailed to say he was from Nigeria and wants to send me a gazillion pounds via direct wire transfer.
Oh him! He's my mate. You can give me those bank details and I'll pass them straight on to him.
It's been a while, but... BLOG UPDATE!Do you ever leave a tip for your doctor?
http://michaelcargill.wordpress.com/2...
No, but apparently ducks leave more than just the tip.
My dentist has a bowl of teeny complimentary toothpastes in reception.Mind you, £70 for a checkup. I usually tip the bowl into my bag.
I bet the bastard even keeps every extracted tooth as well.
Patti (baconater) wrote: "No, but apparently ducks leave more than just the tip."You're infecting all the threads you visit!
Yeah, betcha he does!Oh, thought of you earlier, actually.
We've been re watching Band of Brothers. You seen it?
Episode seven where they liberate a death camp.
I was in floods of tears.
Actually, I'm re-watching Band of Brothers as well!That concentration camp episode is powerful.
Now that's spooky.You got any other films of the genre you'd recommend?
Actually, despite my near obsession with WWII I haven't actually watched or read much fiction about it.The 1970s World at War documentary series is excellent though, and still very highly regarded - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worl...
The German film Downfall, which is about Hitler's last few days in his bunker, is very good - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downfall...
And Conspiracy, a film about the Wannsee Conference where various heads of the Nazi state discuss what shape the Final Soloution should take is also very good. It's chock full of recognisable British actors, including a very good performance from Kenneth Brannaugh - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspira...
We've seen the last two.I'll look for the World at War.
Michael wrote: "Actually, I'm re-watching Band of Brothers as well!That concentration camp episode is powerful."
My sister worked on that series as a sculptress. She worked with others in a large warehouse creating emaciated corpses. She says that as the quantities built she got a real impression of what it must have been like to discover the real ones, and still has bad dreams about it to this day.
That's an awesome anecdote, David.Watching one of the snow episodes with the frozen corpses, I did wonder if it was just normal actors lying there or if they used dummies.
One actor walking toward the camera, carrying another. Had to be a manikin.Very well done, mind.
I do think that war films need to be very realistic. Band of brothers was good but very biased. History is written by the victors, as some dead guy once said.
I've sat in some wonderful history lessons.
One teacher stood in the doorway of the classroom and told the kids to remove one shoe as they came in and put it the corner. Then divided them up and told them to take one shoe from every child in the school and add them to the pile.
800 kids in the school.
800 shoes.
Much more powerful than any film.
The films held more meaning after that.
WRITING UPDATE TIME!Yes, I've been bashing away at the keyboard again and I've finally hit the 25k words milestone that gives me an idea of where things are going and stuff.
For the second book in a row, I'm sticking with the WWII era, although this one is very different from the last one, and is sort-of-a-sequel-but-not-really. For those that have read Shades of Grey, I'm re-using the two main characters from the WWII story in that collection.
For those that haven't read it, fret ye not, for it works perfectly as a standalone story and actually takes place four years later anyway.
This new story concerns a squad of eight British soldiers on a scouting mission after D-Day in France, and so far I'm covering the mental effects of war on the soldiers along with the role of women back home on the domestic front.
Although it's always a worry at the 25k point, I genuinely can't see the story being longer than about 35k words, meaning it might not be long enough for a standalone release.
But who knows what the future holds, eh?
And sending you my thoughts should be easier cuz I've just bought a paperwhite!Yay!
Yay indeed!Touchscreen goodness ahoy.
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Books mentioned in this topic
Saying Goodbye to Warsaw (other topics)Shades of Grey (other topics)
Underneath (other topics)
We Go Again (other topics)
We Go Again (other topics)
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