Review of The Crown

 Look out for my review of the TV show, The Crown, coming soon...

SALE!

Recently I was asked to write a few lines about what libraries meant to me as a child, for a publication. This is what I wrote: 

I was a voracious reader as a child, and tackled books that were far beyond expectations for my age. 

Libraries were my salvation. There, amongst the scent of wood and polish, the librarians with their hair held tightly back in a bun and stacks of books that never judged me for the poverty that prevented me from buying fresh, crisp books, I lost, and found myself.  

But writing those few lines made me think. I've spent a lot of time writing books over the past decade and a half, and I've watched prices creep up on everything from petrol to bread. Has it had a knock on effect on my sales? Well yes. But I'm no longer chasing the dream. I don't have to. So instead of raising my prices in line with inflation, I'm going to do the opposite...

On the 15th September the price of Split Decision (ebook) will lower on Amazon.co.uk to 99p and on Amazon.com to $0.99, for a short period of time. Likewise you can now pre-order the 2nd Edition of  The Owners, Volume 2: Storm Clouds for 99p. Cheaper than a 2 for 1 deal!

Happy reading. 

SALE! SALE! Grab a bargain...

Sale Sale Sale... 

Jigsaw Girl is currently 99p, for a limited time only. 

Get your copy now!

Another review for Jigsaw Girl...

 I'm delighted to be able to tell you that Jigsaw Girl is now 37th in its category on Amazon. If you are currently reading it, thank you. 

Please do leave a review on Amazon and don't forget to tell your friends that it and Split Decision are currently free on kindleunlimted, or if you want to purchase them they are below £2.50 each.  

I'm also delighted to see another review for Jigsaw Girl. Keep them coming in! xx

A review for Jigsaw Girl

 The first ever review of  Jigsaw Girl is in, and it's 5 STARS!! I'm totally thrilled. 

Jigsaw Girl

Today I'd like to tell you about Jigsaw Girl. 

It was a story that came to me via its main character - much the same as Split Decision did.  But that's where the similarity ends. Natalie, from Split Decision, was carried along by fate in many ways, whereas Scarlett Clarke (aka Jigsaw Girl) goes as far as to make her own fate. 

I've always been fascinated by the idea of consequence. And I think that comes out fully in most of my stories. It is, after all, the thing that's at the heart of every good tale. And it fills our lives, shaping the course of our individual destinies. 

Scarlett is a character who is taken to the very brink. She feels responsible for the death of the fireman who died trying to save her and unworthy of the sacrifice he gave - his life for hers. During the time I spent telling her tale I felt a voyeur to her pain. I understood her sense of unworthiness the fragility of her. But I was also proud of her, the way she found her strength, the fact that she dragged herself up in order to help her brother Charlie; that she refused to go down without a fight. 

So if you see yourself in her, please take what you can from this story.  We are all of us flawed. We just need to find a way to be the best that we can. 

BLURB 

   “Do you think we’ll get another dog?” he says. 

    I’m so shocked I stop in my tracks. “After Shadow?” Breath catches painfully in my chest and I have to force myself not to scream. “Is that what you would have done if I’d died, Charlie? Ask Mum and Dad to give you another sister?”

      It’s cruel and unfair, especially as the tone it’s delivered in is acidic. None of this is Charlie’s fault and he’s only nine after all. But he can’t be allowed to think that life – any life – is so easily replaceable. That like changing a lightbulb, the light of one life can ever replace the light of another, extinguished one. It doesn’t work like that.

      Not for me anyway.

      But what if the end, wasn’t the end at all? What if it was really only the beginning?

     Because that’s where my beginning started. At the end. 

TO VIEW THE FIRST SECTION OF JIGSAW GIRL FOR FREE CLICK here.

Happy reading, 

Carmen.  

A new interview...

 Read the latest interview I've given here. Many thanks to Cecilia Lee. 

What's the difference between being traditionally published and being self-published?

There's a world of difference between being traditionally published and being self-published but it's not what you might think...

People often associate books which are self-published with something that is poorly written, badly thought-out and possibly lacking in merit. And it's not always an incorrect assumption. There are indeed books which are out there and available to buy, which quite frankly, would be better used as fire kindling than entertainment. These are the books which were possibly rejected by every literary agent and publisher alike. 

But - and it's a big but - there are a growing army of authors who have chosen to self publish. Not because their work has no merit, but because they want the control over their stories, characters and book covers that self-publishing can give them. I'm one of them. 

In fact, I have recently taken the rights for two of my traditionally published books back from the publishers concerned, and plan to self-publish them instead. This might sound like an insane idea, but having spent a long time having to live with a book cover I really hated and being told that the publisher had decided on the image and that was that, I'm very glad to be going it alone. 

That's not to say there haven't been obstacles along the way. For there have been many. 

Deciding on fonts, on letter sizes and paper thickness...cream or white paper, drop caps at the start of a chapter or not? The decisions I've had to make and the things I've had to learn in order to make those decisions, have been almost endless. 

But I've already republished two books...and there's a whole lot more to come.  Check here for my most recent books and look out for the others coming soon. 

Even better than before - Split Decision

Well get me - I've just managed to publish the second edition of Split Decision and I'm very proud. And not just of the book, but of the perseverance I've had to show to physically manipulate various websites to do so. 

Heartfelt thanks to the support teams of Amazon and Goodreads who have been magnificent in sorting out all my self-induced problems - from putting the books in the wrong place, to trying to figure out why the system wouldn't do what I needed it to. 

Now just another 23 books to go...

Amazon and Goodreads teams, I'd stock up on headache tablets if I were you - you're going to need them...

Happy reading folks!

  

Guest Post from Uncial Press

Time for a guest post from one of my publishers. Enjoy!

Guest Post

It's hotting up!

Whatever he sees in my face seems to please him, and he bends his face closer to mine. For a long moment I think that he will kiss me. Here, in front of all of his friends. But at the last second he moves his lips to my ear, whispering so that only I can hear.

“We’re gonna have some fun, you and me,” he promises and my heart thuds its response.

Taken from the latest chapter of the book I'm currently writing and things are getting HOT. I wish I could make her turn and run away from this monster, but then again, there wouldn't be a book to write if I did!

Happy Reading!