Just a quick hello...

At the moment I am frantically busy finishing off three very different film scripts - I promise I'll tell you all about them, as soon as I can.  

What I can tell you, is that not only are they different genres, but they are vastly different settings, with one set in a large city in China, and another set in Birmingham. 

So, back to work for me after the half term and my strange virus. 

Have a wonderful week, everyone. 

I need your help..

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I'm not one for talking about high-end politics. I have no in-depth knowledge of politics in any shape or form within my own country, let alone the rest of the world.

But what I do have is a good moral compass and I use this to navigate the path I tread. For that reason much of my writing [this blog included] seeks to examine the morals, loose or otherwise, and the values by which we live.

This has led to me writing  psychological thrillers, science fiction adventures and countless other genres of books and screenplays.

And yet, for all that, and all my seeming worldliness, I have recently been shocked on more than one occasion by what is happening in the world around me.

Did you know that in countries such as China, dogs and cats are burned alive by blowtorch? Yes you did read that correctly, ALIVE! They are held on a lead and torched from head to paw whilst they scream in agony.

How despicable and cowardly are these practises? I honestly can't believe that humans can be so barbaric and cruel.

If we don't fight to stop these atrocities there is no hope for humanity. We will exist as a species that closes its eyes to that which it does not want to acknowledge.

And I think most of us are better than that.

Join me in emailing the Chinese Embassy press_uk@mfa.gov.cn.

Your soul will thank you for it. And so will I.   

Read all about it!

My newest book, is now out. Follow the link to take a look at it.

 http://www.pkaboo.net/splitdecision.html

Happy Reading!

Faster, faster, faster!

I can't believe the speed at which I am working on my newest book - believe it or not I am writing two chapters a day!

It is such a darkly twisting plot that the words are flowing out of me almost faster than I can commit them to the screen. Not much of it is printable here though, as I am aware that children and adults alike read my blog and this particular book is suitable for the over fifteens only.

Here however is a little snippet :-

“What’s happening to you is wrong,” my mother placed her hand on the wooden door but did not attempt to push it open. “Through us you might manage to make sure that the same thing doesn’t happen to another girl.”

 

I will post a list soon for venues where I will be conducting book signings and author talks.

 

Until then - Happy Reading!

Up and coming events!

When I get a spare moment I will give you a more extensive list of my forthcoming events. Bookings are still being taken for the few remaining slots this year, however I am also now confirming dates for 2015 author talks and signing events.

If you would like to schedule one with me you can contact me at carmencapuano@ymail.com to request details and to book.

In the meantime, here is one of my events you might like to attend. http://eventful.com/events/book-club-presents-carmen-capuano-/E0-001-074855726-1

Here is what has been written about the books :-

THE BOOK CLUB IS BACK!
We are kicking off a new chapter and a new season with sci-fi/fantasy author Carmen Cupuano. Self-published, self accomplished Capuano has created a new world for the sci-fi/fantasy genre in a set of books set in an post-apocalyptic world... but let's not give too much away.
We invite you to join us and hear more about Carmen, her illustrious books, why she writes in her genre and the chance to grab yourself a few signed copies.

Volumes 1&2 by Carmen Capuano

THE Owners is the debut series by Bromsgrove author Carmen Capuano the first two volumes of which are Alone and Storm Clouds (Fast Print Publishing - Paperback £10.99 and £8.99)

Aimed at teenagers and young adults, as well as a mature audience, this science fiction fantasy imagines that humans are kept as pets, originally unknown to them, and then flickers of consciousness about their situation emerge . . .

Borrowing elements from Andrew Nichol's The Truman Show and Thomas More's Utopia, Capuano develops a good idea well with scope for several more instalments. The time, location, and place are uncertain, but the thematic ambition is bold, an exploration of what humanity is, and as the plot unfolds, what it is not, in a 21st century morality tale.

Pet humans are kept by the Eyons, in a playful twist on the late 20th century Tamagotchi toy craze in which young children rushed to buy the Japanese hand held computer virtual pet, and nurture it.

The second volume, Storm Clouds is self-contained and opens with cataclysmic storms threatening to engulf the West Coast of America, leaving twelve year old Dan Ryan no choice but to be evacuated to New York and into the care of his Uncle Jack.

Both volumes are pacy, easy reads, with a fast developing plot that addresses moral questions without being overtly moralising. Storm Clouds has the more conventional narrative, Alone is the more thought provoking with an alien language which borrows from Orwell's 1984.

The familiar terrestrial setting of America is a more secure setting for the author although having Jack Ryan as a significant protagonist, a name popularised by Tom Clancy in his spy series,+ may be a little distracting Stateside.

As a writing debut it is a strong start, and volume three should be following soon. Capuano feels that there is the potential to add several more to the series , and I think she is right. Young readers will be attracted to the page turning storytelling, whilst older readers will enjoy the time honoured philosophical and moral dimension which the author revels in tackling.

The Owners series is available from Amazon, published by Fast print Publishing, signed copies are available direct from the author at: carmen.capuano@ymail.com

Happy Reading!

Here is the latest snippet from The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons.
 
Lucas is growing closer to his rescue every day. But the bird is growing stronger and soon he will have to face that bittersweet moment all rescuers do - he will have to let the bird go back to the wild.
 
I know fellow resucers will all know that feeling well, the hope and the dread mixed together, it is a heavy feeling in your heart, like treacle seeping through it. Here Lucas is just beginning to feel it :-

 
The pigeon was coming along well and every day took more of an interest in the world outside the window. She would turn her head to watch other birds fly past but now, instead of trying to press herself through the glass as she had done the first morning he had placed her there, she would watch for a while and then turn to him as if to say, ‘that will be me one day, won’t it? You will set me free, won’t you?’


He always replied verbally to her look. “Yes Brighteyes, that will be you too one day.” His mouth said the words even as his heart tried to retract them. He could no longer imagine being in his room without his little feathered friend to keep him company. The pigeon was growing more and more comfortable with him every day and there was a feeling of teamwork between them, as if it was actively helping in its own rehabilitation
 
This book is now about 2/3 complete. I will let you know how I get on. In the meantime if you want to look at my other work just scroll down or click on one of the links.


And as ever - Happy Reading!

Moving on!

Hip-hip-hooray! Back to writing today! [It even rhymes! :)] Here is a snippet from today's chapter.

“Well Lucas, I am no vet. But I am a scientist first and foremost. Have you ever heard of something called Chaos Theory?”

“No.” Lucas hoped that the conversation wasn’t descending into one of Mr Levy’s lectures about scientific principles.

“Well Chaos Theory is a particular field of study in mathematics which has implications in the scientific world. Perhaps you have heard of The Butterfly Effect?”

Lucas shook his head.

The teacher looked crestfallen. “It’s of no matter. But the Chaos Theory teaches us to always expect the unexpected and that one small, insignificant change can, over time and space lead to a monumental shift in circumstances somewhere else.”

“I’m sorry Mr Levy but I don’t think I’m following you,” Lucas sighed.

“Your racing pigeon…”

Lucas interrupted to stave off further confusion. “It’s not a racing pigeon. It’s a normal one I found in the street. It had been injured by a car I think.”

The teacher clapped his hands delightedly. “How wonderful! How perfectly wonderful Lucas for this serves to explain the theory even better!”

Lucas didn’t see how that was possible but he kept his mouth shut.

“Let’s assume that the bird would have died were it not for your intervention. That after all would have been the most likely outcome. But now you have intervened. The bird may die or it may not but ripples have been formed by your actions – ripples that might have far reaching consequences!”

Lucas still didn’t know how this helped him in any way. “But what do I do?”

That’s the whole point. You do nothing now other than carry on looking after the bird – whatever happens next is down to Chaos Theory – or fate if you would like to call it that!”

Lucas backed out of the room leaving the chortling teacher behind. No-one could help him and no-one but him could help the bird. He really was alone against the world.


It's incredible the things I have to research in order to write...one day if I'm lucky I might just get clever!


Until then - Happy Reading!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Mine unfortunately was a mixed bag and I suspect it will continue to be so for some considerable time :(

Anyway as they say in Scotland, "out with the auld and in wi' the new!"

Now I would like to tell you a little tale of what happened to me just before Christmas.

'Twas the night afore Christmas [actually it was the 23rd but what the heck] and all was still and quiet all around. I had a friend staying over and the house was festive and Christmas looking. Tinsel adorned picture frames, cards littered the mantelpiece and hearth and there was a large glowing fibre-optic tree in the lounge window and another two scattered around the house.

As usual I had several items which had just sold on Ebay, one of which was my old dining room table set and I was awaiting its collection. My friend and I had just returned from walking the dogs and both humans and canines were dishevelled and muddy.

The children were excited and all around us there was much high pitched talk and laughter, children racing each other up and down the stairs and causing the biggest dog to whirl around and around, trying to catch her own tail in anticipation of some extraordinary event. The very air was charged with adrenaline and the scent of some long awaited pleasures and surprises.

It was at that precise moment that the doorbell rang and I ushered in a very dapper looking Asian man who turned out to be my Ebay buyer. Having returned late from the walk, I had not had time to dismantle the table as I had assured him I would do, so I did as any insane Scottish five-foot-two author would have done - I lied!

"I was thinking that to save you the bother of having to assemble it with all its various parts," were there various parts, I had no idea but I was into the bluff now and damned if I was going to fall at the first hurdle I encountered, "and as I knew you were bringing a big van for the collection," I had known no such thing but luckily he had turned up in a big white van, "you might want to take it out assembled and save yourself some bother." I actually managed to nod sagely at myself as if it was the best idea ever spoken aloud.

The dapper Asian gentleman agreed. So we began, the Asian man at one end of the table and my friend at the other. We tried to manoeuvre it through the lounge door into the hall ...no way was that happening! The legs of the table almost jammed in the door frame and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

But of course there was the piece de resistance - the patio doors which led from the conservatory to the back garden. We got the table back through the double doors from lounge to dining room and then dining room to conservatory and finally the outside with no ill effects. But the brick walls of the side passage which leads from back garden to front were a daunting obstacle. Unbending and unyielding they stood steadfast in their foundations and taunted me with their narrow confined space.

There was nothing for it but to dismantle the table - there would be no other way of removing it from the home. My mind searched through the old memories of the ex-boyfriend who had assembled the table originally. I remembered there had been a lot of cursing and many tools and instruments used in the process. But for goodness sake, it was a table...not a build-your-own-house-kit, how complicated could it be? Then I remembered that half-way through the job he had left to buy some bolts...there were bolts holding the table together! My blood ran cold. How on earth was I going to get the table dismantled with the new owner looking on? In absolute panic I turned to my friend.

Like a horse fed on a diet too rich in oats I must have resembled nothing more than a panicked little pony [I would have liked to say horse but that's stretching the truth a little too thin.]

Lips pulled back in a tight grimace and eyes rolling wildly, I assured the buyer that my friend would have the table dismantled in a jiffy. The Asian man went back outside to tell the van driver that there was a delay. It was at this point that it started to rain.

Huge sheets of glacier drops shattered to the ground, soaking everything in their path within seconds. Like rapiers, the raindrops sliced through clothing and footwear; mini heat-seeking missiles which leached the warmth from bones and the humour from hearts.

I could tell that by now the Asian gentleman was no longer impressed. I went back inside to see how my friend was faring.

Like an old beloved relative who is past his prime but wishes to be shackled to the home he has known and loved for so long, the table seemed to be resisting all his efforts to dismantle it. And even more unfortunately the house appeared to be colluding with it! I watched transfixed as the first screws were removed and promptly fell into the cracks between the dining room floor boards. I lunged across the room and using a butter knife, began to frantically gouge the minuscule gap in order to retrieve the screw. Hair plastered to my scalp by rain and the thin sweat of fear and embarrassment I grappled with it until I managed to clasp it in my damp palm.

Meanwhile my friend had moved on to the bolts. The table fought bravely, seeming to withdraw the bolt heads deeper into their holes and securing them there with a determination I had not known an inanimate object could possess. My friend persevered. The table resisted. My friend grunted and groaned. The table remained quietly victorious. Until with a quickness of wrist and keenness of eye my friend held the table a certain way, twisted the bolt whilst simultaneously pushing away from it and in one fell swoop, the table was finally undone, mastered, defeated.

And somewhere inside the very pit of my stomach it felt like a hollow victory...perhaps it was the presentiment of things yet to come...

We carried the table remains outside. By now the unrelenting rain had turned to hailstones of the most frightening kind. Huge balls of ice struck us as we hurried the wooden parts to the two men waiting in the white van.

It was on the first return journey that my friend turned a peculiar shade of white. "Get a bit of paper and take down their registration," he hissed at me theatrically.

"Why," I hissed back, just as theatrically [I hate to be outdone and have a terrible competitive streak.]

"Just bloody do it!" he sniped back, seemingly in a mood not to be outdone. But something about the thin set of his lips and anger in his eyes made me bite back any words which came immediately to my mind.

So it was that I stood outside of my house, in slippers and drenched clothing, in front of the van and tried to look as if I were inconspicuously eyeing up my neighbours property when in fact I was memorising the licence plate of the van for God knew what reason.

But being me, I could not bear the suspense and begged my friend to let me know what all the cloak and dagger stuff was about.

"You know when we went out with the first lot of wood from the table?" he said slowly, as if talking to a demented five year old.

"Yes?" I said, trying and failing to hide my annoyance.

"Well I noticed my car door was slightly open and the glove compartment lid was down... and my satnav is gone! Those men have stolen it."

"Well, I will go and confront them!" I said, feeling like I could now take on the world even though my knees were knocking. I told myself it was temper and sheer anger but in the calmer light of day as I write this I am less afraid to admit that yes, there was a little bit of fear in there too.

"No!" he said. "They will deny it and you have no right to search them. "We will have to phone the police."

I watched the two men battle the elements and lock up their van, all the while willing myself to go shove a banana up their exhaust pipe or a nail in their tyres, anything, everything that would prevent their leaving and prompt them into full disclosure and repentance, culminating in them returning our stolen property.

But of course, none of that happened. instead I snatched the money for the table from the man from behind a half-closed door and then slammed it shut in his face, hating myself for being so inadequate.

Then I reached for the phone.

The police, I have to say were very understanding. They were also very quick. Unusually so. I guess that should have started alarm bells ringing in my head...

"We have a rapid response team on the way and there is a helicopter in the area," the 999 controller informed me.

"Oh, um, ok," I responded. "But you will probably not be able to catch them, they left a few minutes ago," I explained.

"Do you know where they were headed caller?" she asked.

"They are on their way back to London," I related what they had told me.

"London, eh?"

Ok so at this point I should have known that things had become more than a little farcical I guess. But you know what? When wrapped up in the situation as it is actually unfolding, you cannot always see the wood for the trees. In my defence, Your Honour!

"So will you let me know what happens?" I asked.

"We have stopped them and are doing a full search on them as we speak," she stated triumphantly.

Now whilst we had been on the phone I had heard several police sirens but could not bring myself to believe it was in response to my call. But yes, it appeared that indeed it had!

Then the police controller said something which made it all fall into place. "We were in your area anyway as there have been a number of thefts within the past twelve hours, many involving satnavs and we think it is a gang targeting your area. With your help we might just have caught them. Hang up now caller as a constable is on his way to your house with more information."

I thanked her and duly hung up.

No more than ten minutes later, two very soaked PCs arrived at my house with a satnav.

"Is this it?" they asked brandishing the said article in my face.

"No," I stuttered dejectedly. "Did you find any others?"

"Well here's the thing..." he said slowly, strangely using that same tone of voice my friend had used on me earlier, the one that made me feel about knee high to a grasshopper and only half as intelligent.

"We searched the men extensively. We made them empty everything out of their van." He didn't say 'in the torrential rain and hail' but I felt the words anyway. "We made them unlock every box and empty out every holdall and bag in the van..." And oh dear God the feeling in my stomach was telling my head and heart things it did not want to know.

"We looked everywhere and there were none of the stolen goods from any of the houses." He looked me in the eye and we both knew he knew I was an idiot. "Is it possible that the theft had occurred before these men arrived and that their arrival was just a coincidence?"

It was of course the only logical answer and I was doubly humiliated. Not only had I caused innocent men to be pulled over and virtually strip searched but I had not even been aware of the burglary in the very first place!

I bowed my head in shame and felt the weight of life upon my shoulders as the policemen trudged away, back to the innocent men who waited still bent over their van in the rain and hail, searched and grappled with to within an inch of their lives. Treated like ghetto drug dealers - because of me!

So now every time I  go to my Ebay account and view the feedback, I cringe. Nothing has been posted there - yet - but I imagine it nonetheless. It will read something like this:-

"Avoid like the plague. This woman will lure you to her home with promises of Ebay bargains but whilst you are there she will waste your time, snatch your money from your hand and then have you strip searched by the police on departure. AVIOD AT ALL COSTS!!!"

So dear readers, this blog post is my way of an open apology to those poor innocent men.

Now can I interest anyone in an only slightly used dishwasher?

Anyone?

[N.B. The above is a true story - unfortunately for all participants.]

Hi folks, things are too frantic to write a post right now so I'll leave you with this teaser...I have a really funny but true-life story to tell you when Christmas is over.

Until then Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

And of course - Happy Reading as ever.

Carmen.