*** COMPETITION TIME!!! ***

With so much going on, I thought it would be nice to host a competition to win a signed copy of one of my books and to include a personalised  message. 

To enter, head over to my facebook page and simply tag a friend, it's that simple. Good luck!

Get ready for it...

I'm reposting a post from a few years ago because I have just finished editing this book, ready for release. 

The Owners Volume 5 - coming soon. 

I have got to stop crying!

I have just written chapter seventeen, where one of my most beloved characters dies and I am heart broken. I didn't want him to die and I even tried to resuscitate him but his death was central to the plot and unavoidable.

And so I am grieving.

Unfortunately  this is not the only time in the past week I have cried. I watched the film District 9 the other night and it had me in floods of tears as well!

So now I have to add that to the list of film I can't watch without having a blubber. Here are my top ten...and in no particular order.

1. King Kong - I LOVE that hairy beast!
2. Truly, madly, deeply - the actors are so real and it gets me every time,
3. Dirty Dancing - I figure that's a kind of odd one here, but I cry!
4. District 9 - obviously!
5. Ghost - there's a definite Patrick Swayze theme here [ahem!]
6. The Lion King - yes I do know it's animation but when the daddy lion holds the cub up....
7. The notebook - oh my God I cried from start to end
8. I am legend - just because he is so alone [and the dog dies]
9. Schindler's list - they almost had to remove me from the cinema
 and finally,
10. Up - another animation which my children did not entirely understand in all its subtleties but I did.

There are of course many, many others, some of which have yet to be written.

But the hardest of all are the ones you write for yourself...

Have a great weekend and do something fun. I sure hope to.

OUT NOW!

I am delighted to say that Volume 4 of the Owners series is out now and available as an ebook and in paperback.

Happy World Book Day!

 

I had intended to publish another book, Volume 4 of this series in fact, for World Book Day - in other words, today. 

But if you've scrolled through these blog posts, you'll have seen how busy I've been. And the truth is that what you are seeing here, is only a fraction of the projects I have underway. 

So hold onto your hats as there's more to come. And I promise Volumes 4 and 5 of this series will be out soon. 

Coming soon...

 I have loads of exciting news but right now I'm not at liberty to tell. So here's a quick peek at just one of my big announcements coming soon. 

Guess what this is...click here.

RTS award nomination

I'm absolutely thrilled to announce that Just James has been nominated for an RTS award.  

I created and wrote this story a few years ago but it's always remained in my heart.  

What's next?

 

There's a new book coming soon. Girl Displaced is a Young Adult romantic mystery and I hope you'll love it. 

Here's a little excerpt:

He looks up sharply. He hadn’t known that I’d seen Caelan then. I immediately wonder why that is and then almost just as immediately dismiss it. Why should meeting me be such a big topic of conversation between the cousins?

“I saw Caelan in the church grounds yesterday,” I say and watch how he tries to keep the surprise from showing on his face.

“He didn’t say.”

I feign nonchalance. “Why would he? I mean you barely know me.” The beauty of the English language is profoundly satisfying under the circumstances. He can’t possibly know if I mean ‘you’ as in him, singular, or as a plural covering both of them. Which is just as well, because I don’t know which way I mean it either.

“How much more of you is there to know?” His question is equally simple. Equally ambiguous.

I force myself to laugh lightly. “Not a lot really.” But we’re both aware that he didn’t mean it like that. His eyes travel to my lips and I think that at any moment he will kiss me…

So while you are waiting for this one, take a look at some of my other books you might have missed. 

To read a bit of Cursed for FREE click here.

To read a bit of any of my other books click here. Alternatively you can 

put my name into the search bar of Google or Amazon. 

AND MANY MORE...

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! 

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!

An audio reading of Split Decision...

With thanks to Wine & Words and the amazing Sarah Jane Rose. 

Listen to the interview and hear the book here. 

Note: the reading follows the interview. 

Happy listening. x

Who am I?

I'm Carmen Capuano. When I was five years old I saw my father smash my mother’s front teeth right out of her mouth. And the saddest part of that statement, is that I’d already seen it all before.

I’m a survivor.

One of life’s hanger-on’s, a refuser of taking the easy-way out; I’m the one who won’t give up. The one who will keep fighting, even when others would admit defeat. Because if I do, if I actually give up, I’m not sure what will be left for me.

Maybe nothing. So that’s why I write.

I write to prove I’m still alive.

Jigsaw Girl is, I believe, one of the finest and most heart-rending books I have written. Every line of dialogue, every situation she finds herself in, every time she has to fight just for survival, these are the hallmarks of her life. And I understand them so well.

I’m neither black nor Asian, but I was raised in poverty, dragged up in the unforgiving streets of Glasgow, daughter of an Italian, wife-beating, gambling father, and an ineffectual mother. You think misery belongs to the ethnic minorities? I’ll tell you now that it doesn’t.

But I don’t tell you this to garner your pity; I tell you to let you see who I am. These are my qualifications for writing this story, my badges of dishonour.

Look at me, look at my pictures – you will only see what I allow you to. But read my stories and you are let into the depths of my soul. It may not be a nice place to be, but God help me, it’s real. 

To date I have written 27 books, only six of which I have published. They cover most genres because that’s how real life is – hard and gritty but also bizarre and full of unexpected twists and turns.

So why should you chose me, out of all the writers out there? Maybe because I can tell a good story. Maybe because I’m a workaholic. Or just maybe because I’m a tortured soul.

And if there’s one thing human nature loves, it’s vicariously experiencing someone else’s misery - viewed from a safe distance of course.

Roll up, roll up, come see the freak show.

But that’s not all of me. I’m deeper than that, at least.

You will find me charming, honest, hard-working and conscientious. The raw terror at life is hidden, the pain subsumed, condensed, spat out onto the pristine page.

You want to know how real life can get?

The book is open, all you have to do is read…

Welcome to Jigsaw Girl.     

 

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!

  

Goodreads!

 Hello readers. 

Are you on Goodreads? Have you even heard of the site? That's the problem. Since the world wide web was created, we have been inundated with information from one place and another. And quite frankly, there are times when it's simply baffling. 

Back in 2012 I put my first book on Goodreads then promptly ignored the site, until I was launching another book. Now, I think that might have been an epic failure (to borrow my kids' terminology) on my part. Goodreads is HUGE. 

It's like a constant stream of Twitter thoughts and ratings on books. And once you get the hang of it, it can be of great help to find your next great read. 

So if you're already on it, or want to be, look me up and send me a friend request here. 

Happy reading! 

Yes, but what's your real job..?

In my experience most people automatically assume that being a writer isn't actually a real job. Even when I tell them I write every day, for at least six hours a day, more than half the people I talk to, will still ask what my real job is. 

In fact the reaction is often akin to what it would be, if instead of saying I was a writer, I claimed to be a fairy charmer or a dietician for frogs. On the whole, people just don't get it. Perhaps because of the fantasy (excuse the pun) surrounding the concept of being a writer (see previous post) or perhaps because it seems a tenuous way to make money...

And in truth they're not far wrong. With royalties literally only pennies on every book sold, it takes thousands of sales to be able to buy a round at the pub, and yet, there is money to be made. 

One of the ways is in ghost writing, or in writing commissioned articles for magazines, either online or in print. There are well paid jobs in copy writing and/or editing, so if you're not fussed whether you write about a new-to-market car, or the latest restaurant, or how to rid yourself of the misery of piles, or any number of things that magazines publish, you can have a job for life. 

The trouble with this sort of writing however, is that it's all slanted towards making the average consumer lust after the subject of your article. This sort of writing is rich in flashy adjectives which often imply that a person will be sexier, more beautiful, richer in life, thinner, sleeker, more intelligent, if only he or she will buy/use/spend /try/give,  etc., etc., etc... And come on, we all know the reality of that, don't we? 

Another problem that writers can face is in connecting with others. It's a dog-eat-dog world in writing, so chatting to another author can become a bit of a competition. They tell you how many books they've written and how successful they are, and you reciprocate. 

You're both cautious when discussing your WIP (work in progress) because there's a chance that 1. this person might steal your idea, 2. this person might ridicule your idea, 3. this person might suggest there is no value in your idea, since the concept has already been written about in a book they will name by an author you've never heard of, and 4. this person might actually like your idea and therefore tell others about it, leading to numbers 1-3 above. 

So connecting with other authors has to be done carefully. 

Quite recently I found myself in one such scenario, and on exiting the building where we had met, I let out a huge sigh of relief ,and then allowed my self to laugh at how silly I felt at having to skirt around the topic of my WIP, whilst she did exactly the same thing. 

We were like boxers in a ring who never landed a single punch. 

But funny as it seems, it's deadly serious too. I know of two production companies who are adamant that their productions have been ripped off by another company. Easily done, when agents, publishers, film directors, producers and TV companies insist that they want to see a whole script before making a decision. 

Of course you can pay for copyright and registration of your work, but like everything in life, that requires money. Whilst relatively inexpensive per script, try doing it with thirty books or scripts. And of course, should you be plagiarised even so, it takes seriously big bucks to drive these cases through court. 

So remember, as they used to say in the war - "Loose lips sink ships," and keep those great ideas to yourself!

Happy reading!