Sunday 31 July 2011

Awards & Awards!


I am so delighted, I've received two fabby awards for my Blog.
A BIG thank you to Pat Newcombe, who by the way is a fabby writer and also lives on Lanzarote, for the Stylish Blogger Award.

The Rules for receiving the Stylish Blogger Award are:

1. Thank and link back to the person giving you the award. (A huge thanks Pat!
2. Share 7 Things About Yourself.
3. Award the Blogs Who You Think Deserve This Award.
4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award.

Well before I announce my second award.... soooo exciting, here are the seven things you might not know about me:

1. I can not ballroom dance, so no chance of being invited on Strictly Come Dancing!
2. I love to rollerblade and have rollerbladed in UK, Paris, Holland, Boston and Lanzarote
3. My claim to shame is that I ate a MacDonald's in Singapore!
4. As a child I bit my finger nails
5. I love to sing, but have a terrible voice!
6. I hate cruelty of any kind
7. I'm one of the 30 invited authors at loveahappyending.com

Now it is my turn to make some awards and I award these fabby peeps the Stylish Blogger Award:
Nikki Bywateer at Books4U
BaggieAggie
Onemorepage

My second award, is a beautiful homemade award from Deidra Eden-Capel, whose Blog is A Story Book World. Please take a peek at Deidra's fabby awards that she has designed.

Here is my award, Powerful Woman Writer . Isn't it gorgeous? I am awarding this award to some seriously powerful writers.These are:

Wendy Soliman
Janice Horton
Nicole MacDonald
Helen Hollick

Thursday 28 July 2011

A Dog's Breakfast!

I thought you might like to see our dining room now and before.....! Enough said!


Before!

Now!

Now!


Now!
Now!
Before!


Before!

Tuesday 26 July 2011

Mimsie!

For the life of me I have no idea why I feel so mimsie. I know we are in a terrible muddle with the villa, but that is going to take quite some time to get sorted. And as much as it is very upsetting to see the new floor dug up and deep trenches across the room, it is not the end of the world.

Of course, I would like to see my latest book selling better, but it is selling, so not the end of the world

And I really would like to get my head more into the latest book that I am writing, which by the way has a working title, Maddison's, but despite many attempts only a few hundred words make it to the keyboard. In fact yesterday I deleted far more than I wrote, but it is not the end of the world!

This afternoon I ate several chunks of chocolate, I try not to do this as I feel I am fat enough, but I fancied chocolate! But adding a few extra kilos is not the end of the world, well having said that, I'm not too sure!

So why am I mimsie? I don't know, but just wanted to share my mimsie days with you....thank you for listening.... Phew I do feel better already....laugh!

Monday 25 July 2011

Sitting at the side of my pool - Nikki Bywater

This week my guest is not only an avid reader, a jobbing actress, but a paranormal investigator. Please relax on one of my pool side recliners and meet the amazing, Nikki Bywater. Over to you Nikki, Take One...LOL!


"Hello and thank you Pauline for inviting me to be a guest on your lovely blog. My name is Nikki Bywater and for the past decade I have mainly been a housewife, but I have also worked as a support artist and jobbing actress. I prefer only to do small roles so that I can spend time with my family. I am also the daughter of a well known medium. I am not a medium myself but would call myself more of a paranormal investigator and through this I research mediums. I have also been on the radio chatting about my paranormal work and what it is like to grow up with a parent who is a medium. As well as my rather different background I am an avid reader.

As far back as I can remember I have enjoyed reading. I had a Great aunt who every Christmas and birthday would buy me a couple of Enid Blyton books. It was stories like The Faraway Tree that got me hooked on books. As I got older I was still reading Enid Blyton and went on to her Malory Towers series. It was the way these books really got your imagination working and you could picture all the magical adventures in your head.

Now as an adult I read lots and lots of different kinds of books from biographies, to Chick Lit, Crime and the paranormal and much, much more! I think we can learn something new from every book that we read. I always go by the old saying never judge a book by the cover. If ever I have any spare time to myself you will find me with my head in a book. I still love the escapism a book brings and if I have had a stressful day I find reading a couple of chapters from my latest novel really relaxes me. My house is full of books.


It was because of my love of reading and my books that I first heard about loveahappyending.com through our good friend here Pauline. I had come to chat with Pauline about my love of reading after I had read Pauline’s wonderful book Magnolia House. It was then that Pauline told me all about the love a happy ending site I was interested straight away and I thought it was a fantastic idea, because it involves people like me, readers. I am now an Associate Reader and through this I am learning lots about different authors and their new books. It is like a behind the scenes look at how the books have been written and you can interact with the authors. I like also that you can get more out of the book that you have just read because you get an opportunity to talk and learn more from the author. I also love the review part. As a reader, it makes a real difference to be able to interact with authors and other like minded people.

Being involved with loveahappyending.com for me as made me see just how much I love books and reading. I very much hope in the future to work with books. In fact my dream would be to have my own book shop and spend my day surrounded by books! But for now I have started my own blog all about the books I have read and reviewed. I have added links to the authors I have read and reviewed so that my visitors can read and learn all about these writers. To make my blog more interesting I have tried to include different genres so that there is something for everyone.

I hope you will stop by and see what my book shelves look like, but for now, I'm away to read a great book from one of the authors from loveahappyending.com. My review will appear on my blog shortly, so don't forget to stop by. Until we meet soon."

I recently did an interview, The Paranormal and Me over at loveahappyending.com
You can also find me at
My Facebook Paranormal Page
My Facebook Page
My Twitter page
My Blog

Friday 22 July 2011

The Fizz!


Oooooha!... As from this week I will be the Editor for The Fizz at loveahappyending.com All exciting stuff as I will be taking a peek behind the scenes of the fabby Associate Readers and Authors who are featured at Loveahappyending. Checking out for snippets of info, secrets and if I'm lucky a bit of gossip too....yay!

Here's my official introduction, http://loveahappyending.com/the-fizz-is-coming-soon-come-and-meet-a-new-publisher/

I hope you'll stop by from time to time to see what I'm revealing and don't forget if you love reading you could be an Associate Reader and then you could be featured in The Fizz too! Click here to learn how to get involved...go on I know you want to!

Wednesday 20 July 2011

A Bit Creepy!

I could not resist buying this lovely hand made Gecko, from the amazing gift shop in Puerto Calero last weekend. He will be climbing up one of the white walls of our villa when I can work out which wall.... ! He looks so good on all of them...laugh!





... and here is Barney checking the metal Gecko out to see if it is something to eat!

Monday 18 July 2011

My Guest This Week: Amanda Rutter from Floor to Ceiling Books!

This week my guest is an avid book lover and book reviewer who is well respected by both publishers and authors, please come on down and meet the lovely Amanda Rutter from Floor to Ceiling Books.

"Thanks so much for inviting me to stop by your website and be your guest, Pauline! As you suggested, I thought it would be a great idea to talk about why I read, what genres I cover, why I now review the books I read and why I finally chose to take the plunge into reading and reviewing self-published fiction.


I read to escape. I’m sure many other people would say exactly the same! When I open the pages of a novel, I am allowed into another world. I meet new characters that I come to love or hate. I visit strange countries. In my day job I am an accountant, and, at times, I find it serious, dull and formulaic (not all the time, I hasten to add!) Consequently, reading is of great value to me. There is nothing better at the end of a long day than cosying up on the couch with my two cats and opening a book. It’s magical!

I was a lucky young reader. Both my parents read a lot when I was younger – my mum loves Wilbur Smith, while my dad is an aficionado of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett. They encouraged me to read, by sharing stories with me (an early memory is of sitting on my dad’s lap as he read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) and buying me books. As I got older, they delighted in taking me to car boot sales where I would rummage for gems – that was how I came upon the whole Belgariad series by David Eddings for less than three pounds!


As to why I started reviewing... Well, when you read as much as I, every now and again (and more often as I get older and the grey matter starts failing a little!) you start reading a book and end up finding it more than a little familiar. Eventually you realise that you’ve read this book before. So part of my intention was to catalogue all the books I read, highlighting the details, so that I would have a permanent record of everything I’ve tried. This is why I am one of those reviewers who will review everything they read, whether a positive or negative experience. When I do have negative experiences, I try to be constructive and give reasons for why I didn’t enjoy the book, rather than just saying it was awful and leaving it at that... Another reason for starting to review publically was to share my love of reading and books. There is nothing better than having a love fest with someone else for a book you both adored! Or, in fact, having a discussion with someone who didn’t hold the same views as you and exploring why that might be.

Book reviewing has become a massive part of my life. My blog is something I spend at least two or three hours a day on, whether answering emails, connecting with others on Twitter and their blogs, reading other reviews – and, of course, reading books. I can’t imagine a time now where I won’t be lovingly cultivating Floor to Ceiling Books, and trying to make it a place where people feel welcomed to discuss all things bookish.

In order to be all-inclusive – and because I have a genuine love for ALL books – I decided very early on that my blog simply couldn’t be contained within one genre. Sure, my first love is probably fantasy and science fiction, but I adore a good chick lit novel. I read a little horror, some crime, thrillers, family sagas, historical novels. I’ve read so much, from Tolkien to Marian Keyes, visiting a little Stieg Larrson, Bram Stoker and Stephenie Meyer in between. I don’t look down on any authors or genres, and I’m willing to give anything a try!

That is one of the reasons why I decided to start accepting self-published work. The other major reason for this is thanks to Angry Robot Books. In a stunning opportunity for me, I was invited to be one of the “slushpile” readers for their Open Door Month, where they invited non-agented authors of speculative fiction to send in manuscripts. (By the way, I do hate the term slushpile, having now been involved with one – I use it because it’s the recognised word for what I tackled). While reading through almost 500 partial manuscripts, I realised that there are a LOT of exceptionally talented authors out there. And they simply won’t all get published through traditional means, thanks to sales budgets and yearly slots and all the other things that restrict publishers to only accepting a limited number of manuscripts each year. For me, this is why self-publishing is now just exploding. Thanks to the Kindle and Amazon, it is easier than ever to get your novel out there. Do I think *everyone* should be publishing? Definitely not – some self-published works are still questionable at best! However, it is an outlet for those people with talent who are willing to put in the work, use beta readers and exploit the fact that most people now have some form of eReader.

One of the easiest and best ways of supporting these intrepid authors who decide to take their fates into their own hands is to give them a try. You might read a few pages and decide that your 99p was a bust. You might end up reading something marvellous, and recommending it to all your friends. Hence, I now welcome self-published works to Floor to Ceiling Books. After having such a fun time with Sometimes it Happens... I realise that I made the right decision – I might well stumble over more great novels *grin*

Well! I think I’ve chattered on long enough about reading and reviewing – I hope you can tell it is something I’m deeply passionate about. I look forward to seeing a few of you over on my site – you’re always welcome. And thanks once again to Pauline for this opportunity.


For more about Amanda and her book reviewing, please stop by at Floor to Ceiling Books
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ALRutter
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001188310569
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/3269646

Friday 15 July 2011

A Bright Moonlit Night!


The night was so alight last night with the full moon I just had to try and capture the scene. Our day light hours don't change too dramatically down here. The real change is around two and half hours, the changing of the clocks has the biggest impact, which makes the overall difference three and half hours.
In December we are dark by 6.30pm and the height of Summer we are dark by 9.45pm. Visitors to the island in the winter, love the longer days here!

Wednesday 13 July 2011

You Have To Smile!

My writing is not doing too good at the moment, I am distracted which ever way I turn. We have some pretty big things to do to our villa. Those who have read my earlier Blogs will know we have had serious problems with tree roots in the sewer pipe. The garden section has now been replaced, but we must now dig up floors inside the villa also to replace the pipe there too. This along with a number of other issues has managed to halt my usual over active imagination to sub zero!

I know all the issues that are bothering me will be sorted, because they always do and I will once again get weaving on my book 4... fingers crossed and the wind blowing in the right direction! I even have a title...laugh!

Despite these set backs, I try to be positive, see the best in people and situations and make the most of everything. Someone once said,  though I don't know who it was....! The happiest people are not those who have everything, but those that make the best out of everything.... On that note, I am making the best of what is left of my ability to write and posting this Blog.


Thank you for stopping by, it really makes all the difference....keep smiling....I will!

Monday 11 July 2011

My Guest - Mandy Baggot

With three books already published, Mandy Baggot is busy burning the midnight oil as her fourth book will be published in November 2011. Okay Mandy, take it away....

"Hi everyone and thanks so much to Pauline for inviting me onto her fab blog! Along with all her other guests I am also jealous of her location and feel I must invite myself over for some sunkissed inspiration sometime - charging it to business expenses of course!
Well, about me - I'm a married mother of two girls (6 and almost 4) and I write contemporary romantic fiction/chicklit. I had my first novel published in 2008 under a scheme set up by Youwriteon.com to get new writers into the marketplace and that chance couldn't have come at a better time for me. I had written my first two novels on my maternity leaves with my girls and I was keen to explore the possibility of making a real go of writing as a career. I've been writing since school, mainly endless ongoing soap opera style stories involving my school friends and the popular hunks of the time but although I loved writing I knew how difficult it was to get into and never really considered it as a career. But a passion you have and a compulsion to keep on writing no matter what can't be ignored so after publishing Breaking the Ice I chucked in my job and became a full time author! How scary is that? And its the hard work I thought it would be. A lot of my time is spent writing proposal letters to agents and publishers, marketing and publicising my novels and making people realise I am out there, because if people don't know you're there they can't buy your books! But even though its hard work I still absolutely love it and have no doubt this is what I was destined to do!

 Excess All Areas was my first novel and it tells the story of Freya (a feisty size 20 photographer with more than a few skeletons in her closet) and Hollywood heartthrob Nicholas Kaden (who despite his perfections is keeping a shocking secret himself). I set this in the gorgeous village of Kassiopi on the island of Corfu, a place I have visited many times. This is a feel-good beach read which I hope pulls at a few heart strings along the way.



Breaking the Ice is my Dirty Dancing meets Dancing on Ice novel. Box office assistant Samantha is nervy and neurotic and has panic attacks over the slightest thing. Jimmy Lloyd is a star skater and recovering alcholic. They are thrown together when touring show 'Skating on Broadway' comes to the Woolston Civic Hall. Can they find common ground in their bid to save the hall from closure or do opposites not attract after all?


Knowing Me Knowing You is my latest release and is set around a fictional gameshow rather like Mr and Mrs meets The Generation Game. Lawyer Kate is forced to employ a male escort for her plus one at a work function but her bitchy boss has set her up and soon they are taking part in a relationship contest. A bit tricky when you've only met that night! Thrown into the mix is a tarot card reading childminder, a nasty ex-husband and a foot stamping devil child called Cyrus. Can Kate win the contest and the love of the right man.



I am delighted to be a featured author on a terrific new website Loveahappyending.com which launched on 29 June 2011. It hopes to give readers a chance to support new published/unpublished authors with books that promise the 'feel good factor'. We are all hoping that supporting and promoting each other will boost both our sales and our profiles and make readers take a chance on an unfamiliar name in writing and see the quality that lies there.

At the moment I am doing final edits to my next release Strings Attached which should be released in November time this year - hoping to bag some pre-Christmas sales! And then I have a couple of other novels simmering away in the background all demanding my attention!
I blog at least twice weekly and am always looking for new members for my website to join in the conversation! We chat about all sorts from your opinion on heroes and book covers to mashed potato and Vanilla Ice - there's always something mad going on! Pop along and have a look here http://www.mandybaggot.webs.com/

So that's me, Mandy Baggot - keeping love alive - well, trying to!
Mandy
Knowing Me Knowing You
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Knowing-Me-You-Mandy-Baggot/dp/1908147601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309083198&sr=8-1

Excess All Areas
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Excess-All-Areas-ebook/dp/B0051WRSDY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1309083198&sr=8-2

Breaking The Ice
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Breaking-the-Ice-ebook/dp/B0053CZKHS/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1309083198&sr=8-4

Saturday 9 July 2011

Associate Readers!


On 29th June loveahappyending.com was officially launched and promises to be a new and exciting venture. I am delighted and honoured to be one of the 30 chosen Authors to feature on their website. Being a featured Author has many advantages, one of them is that I have my own Author page with my book details and all my links, but more importantly, I have four Associate Readers.

These four people along with all the other Associate Readers at loveahappyending.com play an important role for all the new Authors featured. Today I want to introduce my special Associate Readers.


My Photo

Nikki Bywater
Twitter A/c @NikkiiNola: http://bit.ly/kkkUQ7
Facebook Page: http://on.fb.me/lLt2ds





Louise Graham
Twitter Account @lougrahamiihttp: http://bit.ly/iyaYS1
Blog: http://bit.ly/j4kSZl






Cara Donovan
Twitter A/c @carafreckles: http://bit.ly/j3sm2u




Lindsay Gentles
Twitter @ttpbookreview: http://bit.ly/rd40Sj






These special people will be twittering, Blogging and talking about their passion -reading. So please take a peek at their web and Blog sites to find out what their latest read is. They will also be featured in the Review Chair at loveahappyending.com, so please stop by from time to time to say "hello."

Thank you Nikki, Louise, Cara and Lindsay for being my special Associate Readers.

If you love books and have a passion for reading and you are interested in becoming an Associated Reader, please take a look at loveahappyending.com. It just might be for you too!

Thursday 7 July 2011

Sometimes It Just Happens!


What a week it has been so far. I've burst into tears. Somethings made me scream whilst others have brought a smile to my lips.
On the scream side, since last Saturday, if we add up all the times we have had Internet connection, it would probably be at best 60 mins! It has caused us great pain and serious difficulties.

The problems with our sewer pipe has turned into our worst nightmare! The trench we have dug (you will remember my Blog from a couple of weeks ago), well by the end of today, it will have new pipe laid in there. But we have just been told that the pipe is very badly damaged further into the house, again through massive tree roots, and we have to dig up our new floor in our downstairs dinning room, kitchen and through to the downstairs bathroom….I just burst into floods of tears.

Plucking another tissue from the box and wiping at my tears, I know there has been some smiles. I have had more lovely 5 star reviews for Sometimes It Happens… and also the Kindle sales of my other two books have been increasing. So ending this Blog on a positive note... sniff!

PS our internet is still very iffy!



Monday 4 July 2011

Helen Hollick's Sea Witch Blog Voyage!


This week Helen Hollick sets sail on an amazing adventurer with her Sea Witch Blog Voyage. I am delighted that just four days after setting sail, Jesamiah, her famous pirate, insisted they drop anchor and fill the barrels with more rum. So whilst Jesamiah plunders for his favourite tipple, Helen has kindly taken time out of her frantic schedule to stop by and talk about her Sea Witch series.


 About Helen Hollick

Helen was born in North East London, England, and started writing pony stories as a young teenager. She moved onto science fiction and fantasy and then discovered the delight of writing historical fiction.

Published in the UK and the US with her books about King Arthur and the 1066 Battle of Hastings, Helen also writes a series of historical adventure seafaring books inspired by her love of the Golden Age of Piracy.

Helen still lives on the outskirts of London with her husband, Ron, adult daughter Kathy and a variety of pets, including a dog, a cat, and three horses.

Helen your pirate books have stunning covers, can you tell us more about them?

I so love the covers for my books! Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics http://www.avalongraphics.org/ designed them - I believe she also did Sometimes It Happens... your own book cover as well, Pauline? Her work is stunning.

I did not want my pirate, Jesamiah’s face showing as everyone has their own idea of what a character looks like – so for Sea Witch Cathy came up with the idea of showing him from the back – and then she added the ship into the cover. I love that ship!

For Pirate Code the idea was to show Jesamiah in trouble, a prisoner…. Note what he is holding in his hand – one of his blue ribbons (they are very significant to the character!)


We have slightly changed the cover for the new edition of Bring It Close. Originally we had Tiola on the far bank of the river, a ship coming into view, and just a pirate hat in the near left corner. Helen Hart of SilverWood Books suggested it didn’t quite convey what the story was about though. Despite the old saying ‘you can’t judge a book by its cover’ the cover image is important to attract people to pick the book up. We had one of the characters on the back cover – Charles Mereno, Jesamiah’s father, who appears in this story as a ghost trying to put right the things he did wrong while he was alive. We moved him to the front – instant interest and a glimpse of the story at a glance. Now on the back is a wonderful image of Tiola. Cathy’s friend, Anne from Long Island New York, posed for Tiola and Charles is “played” by Cathy’s husband, Ray, (those are his hands on Pirate Code as well) I am very grateful to them both for their enthusiastic help.
Ripples In The Sand (Voyage four, not yet published) has the most stunning sunset photograph of the beach at Appledore, Devon, where the story is set, taken by my editor’s son Simon Murgatroyd – and Anne again as Tiola.

You are well known for your historical novels, but you also have 3 books in your pirate series, with a 4th book being written, what made you write these swashbuckling adventures?

Jack Sparrow! Like so many others I fell for Johnny Depp’s portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, the Curse of the Black Pearl. I hadn’t seen it at the cinema but my daughter, Kathy, bought the DVD. It laid around for ages, then one day I had a bad cold so decided to pamper myself and watch a DVD – I chose this one. I thought the opening scenes were alright, but nothing special and then we had that first view of Jack astride the masthead… ‘Ooh what’s this?’ said I. The scene where he dives in to rescue Elizabeth from drowning – that was it, I was hooked!

The trouble was, as an avid reader I wanted more pirates, something similar to read. A lovable rogue of a pirate novel with a touch of fantasy – a sailor’s yarn of adventure. And I couldn’t find anything. There was Daphne du Maurier, C.S. Forrester, Patrick O’Brian…. Celia Rees, James L. Nelson…. But nothing that remotely came near the “sexy” character of Jack Sparrow. So I did the obvious thing. Wrote the book I wanted to read!

Sea Witch is the first voyage of Captain Jesamiah Acorne, tell us a little about him and what makes him such an interesting character

Let me see… he’s a charmer, sexy, handsome, a delightful rogue….  He’s the sort of guy who you can count on if you are in a fix – as long as he isn’t too busy plundering treasure, eying up a beautiful woman or enjoying a bottle of rum.

Seriously, I describe Jesamiah Acorne as a blend of Sharpe, Jack Aubrey, Hornblower and Indiana Jones – with a touch of James Bond and a dash of Jack Sparrow. He’s a hero character, capable, strong, intelligent – but he can and does get things wrong. Quick to laugh, formidable when angry.

I wanted to create a character who was a dramatic/romantic hero, but with flaws. He meets the young woman he falls in love with – Tiola Oldstagh (pronounced Teo-la Oldstaff) but when tempted by the possibility of obtaining a beautiful ship he Is lured back to the sea. Assuming Tiola will follow he realises he has made a mistake when she doesn’t.

There are two dimensions to the Sea Witch Voyages; the main plot, where Jesamiah finds himself in some sort of difficult situation – trouble follows him like a ship’s wake – and an ongoing plot which runs through the series, of Jesamiah and Tiola’s relationship and their past life (or in Tiola’s case, lives).

There is an element of fantasy in the stories, Tiola is a healer and a midwife, but she is also a White Witch, one of the Old Wising Women who has the gift of Craft passed down from grandmother to granddaughter. She is Jesamiah’s soul mate – but the course of love does not run smooth, not when Tethys, the spirit goddess of the sea also wants Jesamiah for herself…. As the stories progress we will discover why (in Ripples In The Sand) and more of Jesamiah’s background - his bullying half brother, the father who apparently had no care for his youngest son…. a conundrum that Jesamiah must unravel in Bring It Close, when he is haunted by the ghost of his father, while pursuing the black-hearted pirate Blackbeard.

Away from writing what can you be found doing?

My writing takes up most of my time – I have Facebook and my blogs to run, and e-mails tend to pile up.
My daughter has three horses, Ace, Lexie and Rosie, so I often go to horse shows with her. She competes side-saddle usually in the historical costume classes. I enjoy gardening, growing our own veg and such, and we have three hens, a dog and a cat – so my days are often full!

When can we expect RIPPLES IN THE SAND to be published?

I feel so guilty about Ripples…. I know I have a boatload of Jesamiah fans waiting for this next instalment in his adventures. The story is about half finished, but I had to set it aside while editing my serious historical fiction for publication in the US – and then, just as I was about to pick it up again, my UK publisher went broke. Rather than allow my books to fall out of print here in the UK I decided to transfer to an assisted publishing house – SilverWood Books. Unfortunately, my ex-publisher did not return any of my files and I only had unedited versions – so the mammoth re-editing had to start all over again. Editing several books in a couple of months is no easy task! However that is now completed and I am back with Jesamiah finishing his fourth voyage. I would like it to be published in the late autumn, but just before Christmas is probably the more viable option.

In this story we are in Devon, England. Jesamiah is trying to sell a cargo of tobacco and Tiola must see into the past to discover why Tethys is so determined to have him for her own. Jesamiah gets involved in smuggling, jailbreaks and a Jacobean rebellion! Look out for some guest characters as well – the Doone Family from the classic novel, Lorna Doone.

When researching Ripples in the Sand I knew I wanted to set the story at Appledore, near Bideford in Devon, because I know the place well (my UK editor, Jo Field, lives there) what I did not know, until I started researching the historical elements was that in the early 18th Century Bideford was one of the largest tobacco trade towns in England. I also discovered – after I’d started writing - that on the headland opposite Appledore is a ruined chapel. Nothing unusual in that…. except it is dedicated to St Anne, who comes from the Celtic goddess Anu – the goddess of fertility, birth and midwifery!

And the co-incidences don’t end there! Cathy Helms of Avalon Graphics who designs my book covers used her friend Anne again, (Anne – another co-incidence) for Tiola. She is kneeling in the sand holding a baby, and is wearing a red gown and a green cloak. It was one of those hair stand up at the back of the neck moments when I discovered that the goddess Anu is usually depicted wearing….. you guessed it. A red gown and green cloak.

Where can we find Helen Hollick, apart from being in the top ten bookseller!?

The top ten bestseller list would be nice, but I doubt that will happen as there are many writers far better than I.
I have several blogs, I am often on Twitter but you will find me on Facebook every day - so see you there, I hope!

Main Website: http://www.helenhollick.net
Muse and Views Blog: http://www.helenhollick.blogspot.com/
Monthly Journal: http://www.helenhollick.net/journal.html
Blog profile: http://www.acorne.blogspot.com
Picture Diary Blog: http://helenhollicksdiarydates.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/helen.hollick
Twitter: http://twitter.com/HelenHollick


Now we've wetted you appetite for a swashbuckling adventure, please come on aboard and watch The Sea Witch YouTube Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2-lvjk_7GU

 


If you would like to win a copy of Helen's Sea Witch book, the first in the series of the voyages of Captain Jesamiah Acorne, please leave a comment below telling me why Jesamiah Acorne should pick you.
The prize, a copy of Sea Witch can either be in paperback or Kindle format, the winner can choose!


The Sea Witch Series are available from:

Helen Hollick
Sea Witch
Being the First Voyage of Cpt Jesamiah Acorne & his ship, Sea Witch


Isbn 9781906236601
Published by: SilverWood Books
Price £ 10.99 $18.50 (US)
Availability: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Kindle (& other e-book sources i.e. NookBook)
or direct from publisher: http://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/
Front cover designed by http://www.avalongraphics.org/

Helen Hollick
Pirate CodeBeing the Second Voyage of Cpt Jesamiah Acorne & his ship, Sea Witch
Isbn 9781906236632
Published by: SilverWood Books
Price £ 10.99 $18.50 (US)
Availability: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Kindle (& other e-book sources i.e. NookBook)
or direct from publisher: http://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/
Front cover designed by http://www.blogger.com/goog_1695812107

Helen Hollick
Bring It Close
Being the Third Voyage of Cpt. Jesamiah Acorne & his ship, Sea Witch
Isbn 9781906236625
Published by: SilverWood Books
Price £ 10.99 $18.50 (US)
Availability: Amazon.co.uk Amazon.com Kindle (& other e-book sources i.e. NookBook)
or direct from publisher: http://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/
Front cover designed by http://www.avalongraphics.org/

 



To chart Helen's amazing sea voyage and to see which ports she drops anchor in during this exciting adventure, click here