College and school talks

In the coming months I will be popping up here, there and everywhere, as I give talks at a number of schools and colleges about writing, publishing books, writing for film and TV, and running film festivals. I'm absolutely thrilled to be encouraging and ushering a new generation of  creatives into the industry. 

People have a skewed idea of what working in this industry is like. Some think it's a never-ending barrel of laughs, like the blooper reels from films and TV series we see so often on social media. Some think it's a hard, hostile, dog-eat-dog environment, and others think it's all champagne, red carpet events and glamour. The truth is of course, a lot more complex. 

I personally have gone full circle, more or less. When I was at school I wanted to be an actress and so at eighteen I left for London and the glamour that supposedly waited there. I never imagined that all these years later I'd be working on the other side of the camera, and that in 2025 I'd be busier than ever. 

Book Week, Scotland

I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to have been invited to be a part of Book Week, Scotland. I hope to see you there! 

Coming very soon...

I'm thrilled to announce that The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons will be coming soon. Keep your eyes peeled!

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

Merry Christmas!

Hello again readers!

We are fast approaching Christmas and it's going to be a very different one for us. Not only do we have a different dog in the house ( one who despite all her nervousness and strangeness, is weirdly indifferent to the Christmas tree and decorations) but I'm feeling as if we are a little thin on the ground.

As you may know from reading my blog, we have had lots of losses over the past two years, and with my eldest now away at Uni, I feel somewhat diminished, smaller in myself. Having taken my third child to some college interviews recently, and with the middle one starting to think about universities, it's clear I'll soon have to face 'empty nest syndrome'.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I was dropping my youngest at nursery, and I wonder what happened to all the intervening years. Inside my head I'm still a young woman. The exterior of me tells a different story, I'm afraid.

So I've made some major decisions. I'm the sort of person who likes to take stock of their lives and I've come to realise that I need make a move towards vegetarianism. I was veggie for two whole years about 28 years ago. I'll admit I found it hard going.

But back then there wasn't the choice of vegetarian foods there is today. Back then it was soya mince or nothing. The other problem was and still is, that I don't like potatoes and I actually don't like many vegetables, other than salad leaves and broccoli... kinda makes it difficult to have any variety.

Nevertheless I'm going to cut down on meat with a view to becoming totally vegetarian in time. So - wish me luck. I think it's the right thing to do, especially as my body gets older and needs more nutrition and less rubbish, and from a moral viewpoint.

I'll let you know how I get on.

Happy reading!

Did you know that reprints of Split Decision have just been delivered in South Africa? 

Here they are in all their glory.

They are a little different to the British version and list my other books on the inside as well as giving a list of readers who have recommended the book.

If you haven't yet bought yourself or a loved one a copy, now is the time.

Happy Reading! x

Easy Life Or Crazy Life, What's Your Preference?

I originally wrote this post a couple of years ago, but came across it just the other day.

Reading it back, I'm amazed at how frantic my life was back then and how chilled it is by comparison now. See what you think...

First day of the school hols and I'm up with the larks...got a courier, a broken oven, a broken washing machine, a filthy house, a load of paperwork to fill in and file, 3 children, 2 dogs and a pigeon to sort out...did I mention it was the start of the summer hols???

Now let me explain...yesterday was an absolute nightmare of a day.

I had woken early, jumped out of bed and woken the kids for their last day of school for this academic year. Knowing that it was due to be a busy day, I got the breakfasts sorted, the lunch bags sorted and then myself showered. 

Racing against the clock, I pulled clothes over me as I dashed downstairs only to find the kids still enjoying a leisurely breakfast.

Shocked, the conversation went a little like this:-

"What are you doing? It's quarter to nine!" I whispered, still unable to talk properly due to my tonsillectomy.

 "No, mum, it's quarter to eight! You got us all up an hour early!" I was told emphatically and rather irately!!

And do you know what? They were absolutely right. So instead of just accepting this and cooling down, I then proceeded to clean all four bathrooms and arrange a courier for some books I had sold. I also phoned the washing repair man who seems to have either died before completing the job of repairing my machine, or alternatively has been eaten by sharks...because it's been a week since his last visit and still no sign of him returning.

Then [at the correct time], I took my youngest child to her leavers' assembly and sat and watched their teary performance. After this I walked my dogs and met with a group of mothers in town who were going to celebrate their children leaving first school.

Hungrily I watched them devour huge platefuls of appetising food, unable to participate due to my very recent tonsillectomy. I consoled myself with the thought that I had to leave early to collect child no. 1 from his school to attend an orthodontics appointment.

So a mere hour after sitting with the mums, I was back in the car, on route to the school once more. And what greeted me when I arrived? A truculent teenage who informed me that he was not happy to be missing the last hour and a half of school!

Annoyed now, I escorted him to the dentist where they took moulds of his teeth and raced him back to school for the final 40 minutes.

Then, passing the group of mums who were just heading back, relaxed and jolly, I set off to the next school to pick up the daughter who was finishing school that day.

At least she was pleased to see me.

We came home. Buoyed by her youthful exuberance and high spirits, I thought we would have a celebratory tea of spare ribs [I was hoping I could suck the meat off and bypass it into my throat with a lot of liquid libation] chips and chicken wings.

An hour and a half later, when the food was mildly warm but still raw, I knew there was something wrong. The oven had died. either in empathy with the washing machine or completely independently, it had lost the will to live.

It was then I went completely insane. Flinging  cooking utensils to the left, right and centre of myself, I hunted for alternative methods of cooking the foods I had promised to the kids.

Now at this juncture, most sane people would have said, 'ok, lets get a take away'. But you see, dear readers, that is where I differ from pretty much everyone else in the universe.

Like it was a personal affront to my dignity to throw away this food, I took it as a challenge that I would not be beaten over. 

Throwing the chips into a wok, I proceeded to burn them into charred remnants of what they once were, whilst I undercooked [yet also managed to burn] the ribs and wings in an electric frying pan.

Thinking that it would be a good idea to make an adventure of the situation, I then [unwisely as it turned out] put all the food on a sharing platter and a whole two tins of beans in a large bowl for the kids to help themselves.

What a mistake to make! In between arguing over who got which charred rib and how many chips they each loaded onto their plates, the kids complained that this was how cowboys ate and why had I made so much washing up for myself [oops forgot to say that the dishwasher broke a few months ago too].

After the squabbling had ended and I had cleared up, I was so wound up that I decided to take my frustration out on the oven itself.

Watching me trying to heave it from its cabinet, the coolly delivered "you might want to take the screws out first" from my eldest, did not really help. Head aching and the place where my tonsils used to hang out, burning in my throat, I wrestled with the oven, trying to get it out so that I could measure its dimensions for a new one. It was at this point that I accidently yanked the oven door right off, causing me to stagger backward with the weight of it in my hands.

The pigeon watched me from the safety of it's cage as if it were I who was some rare and endangered species of bird, beady eyes alert and if I'm not mistaken, filled with humour at my situation.

It was at this precise moment in time that the middle child came and told me that the upstairs toilet was now broken.  As I strode upstairs, summer dress flowing behind me, covered in grease, grime and sweat to repair/ make worse that situation, one thing occurred to me...I left home at eighteen and since then I have lived only ten years with a man in the house...and I still don't know how to fix one damned thing!

So that's why this morning my Facebook status read as it did. 

You are probably not as relieved as I am that as I write this blog at one pm, there is a man booked to come fix [I hope] the oven, the washing machine man has been located alive and well and will be back next week and I have vacuumed and tidied the house [oh and the courier has been]...did I tell you it was the first day of the summer hols...?

Happy holidays folks!

Showstopper

For the past academic year, my daughter has been perfecting her role as a lioness in a school production of The Lion King, so obviously I bought a ticket for one of the performances of the show this week.

Now it may surprise you to know this, but underneath this hard, Glaswegian exterior, is a heart that's as soft as a marshmallow. I kid you not! In fact I couldn't watch the animation of this film when my children were little, without dissolving into a puddle of tears. Not just the first time, but every time!

Likewise, I don't watch King Kong, because it breaks my heart, and if I ever watch a sentimental movie, I am a blubbering mess for days after. But this was a school production of a tale set in Africa and where all the characters were animals... how were a group of kids going to pull this off in any moderately interesting way?

I imagined lots of pretend animal noises and cardboard masks, coloured-in by the kids themselves.
Not so!

What these middle school children pulled off was such a refined performance, that I was thoroughly entranced. All of the major parts had been given to budding actors and actresses who quite frankly, acted and sang their socks off.

But the one person who made it for me, was the young girl who played 'Scar'. Her performance was so riveting, so filled with elements of light and shade, that she came across both as a dynamic and seasoned performer.

This show had everything it should have had, humour, wit, great costumes and interesting dialogue. And it was put across with real heart and soul. The costumes were well thought out and designed, and the music sung with gusto and just the right amount of poignancy.

So there's nothing more for me to add, other than:- Kids you were fantastic and I loved every minute!

And whenever you have another production, rest assured, I'll be there!

Until then, happy reading!

Coming Event

On the 26th November I will be selling signed copies of Split Decision at the Christmas Fayre at Lordswood Girls' School in Birmingham. 3.30-5.30

There will be the usual variety of stalls and I will be happy to talk about my writing and characters to all passers-by. Hope to see you there.

 

Happy Reading!

NEWS!

One of my very first reviews ever, was from a gentleman in Hawaii who raved about The Owners, Volume I, and insisted it should be compulsory reading in schools.
 
I have never forgotten those kind words, and will be eternally grateful, Richard Sommery-Gade. So today I am posting here to say that your comments were perhaps far-seeing.
 
Yesterday, I discovered that my books were being considered for schools not only in England, but in Egypt! So keep your fingers crossed for me folks and I'll let you know what happens.

Happy Reading! 

I try to write Monday to Friday. I don't always manage it but I try nonetheless. As Meatloaf says in his song, "some days it don't come easy, and some days it don't come hard..." Today I am fully in my flow.

Here is the paragraph I have just written:-

She walked briskly, not really seeing the scenery or noticing the people who passed her on the path, their polite hellos not denting her thoughts. For so long her life had been average – perhaps less than that even. It had been mundane. She had slept and risen, cooked and cleaned, worked and relaxed to the singular beat of a lethargic drum.

Now it seemed as if some fiend had snared the instrument and beat instead on it with manic glee, thrashing a new rhythm out with wild abandon, building to a crescendo, a symphony of notes cascading from on high and being propelled back upwards by the sheer force of the tempo.

And she was being hauled alongside it.

 

If you would like to know more about how and why I write, then why not come along to one of my author talks? I will be posting details of the next venue shortly. As always you can contact me on carmen.capuano@ymail.com if you would like to arrange a talk for a school or group you are involved with.

Until then - Happy Reading!

 

 

Many thanks to those who turned out to meet me at Droitwich Library on Wednesday morning and at Bromsgrove Library on Wednesday evening. I had a great time talking about writing and my books.


Today I have been giving a talk to Halesowen Reading Group, a lovely, interested and interesting group of ladies. What pleased me most was the comment that one lady made to me after the talk. She confessed that she had not been looking forward to the event at all as she was not the least bit interested in sci-fi but had been so intrigued and interested by my talk she was actually the first of the group to buy a signed copy! Moreover, she asked if she could put my name forward to do a talk with the school she works at!


Another lady told me her grandson is already a fan, having bought the first three volumes with his pocket money and is looking forward to the recently released 4th volume. The same lady then went on to buy signed copies of the volumes for herself.


So you can see why I am all of a glow even if the scene outside my window looks like it is trying to depict the setting of Volume II.


On Monday the kids go back to school and I go back to writing...can't wait!


Happy Reading!


:)