Still happening...

This is a post I wrote some time ago. Unfortunately the situation remains unchanged.

Too much far too soon.

I read something in the Huffington Post the other day which reflected exactly how I felt.

Apparently a father of a young daughter, who just also happened to be a Reverend, wrote an open letter to a well-known underwear brand, asking that they reconsider their plans to produce and sell lacy, slogan emblazoned underwear to young(ish) children.

Now I use the word children here both carefully and well considered.

By the laws of this country and most other progressive ones, minors are considered to be 'children' until at least the age of sixteen if not much older. This means that certain things, acts and products are prohibited to them. And this is done with good reason.

I know we all love our children and want them to be happy, stylish and feel that they fit in with their peers...but let's get real here. Do you really think that emblazoning a pair of lacy, racy thong pants with the slogan "feeling lucky?" is the way to do it? Or allowing our teens to be wearing such things?

No! The sentiments exposed there are both too jocular by nature with a semi-sophisticated self-deprecation and at once too mocking to emulate the true way that teens feel about the very idea of sexual attraction.

Think back to your own early teens if you will. Were you really so sure of your own attractiveness that you could wear these pants with no self-effacement, no modesty? If you are truthful, I think you will agree with me that the answer is no.

These slogans are made up by [and any teens reading this, I want you to take note] fat, balding old men who sit behind desks dreaming lasciviously of young girls. Be in no doubt about that.

Girls, these pants are not grown up, they are not sexy...they were designed by dirty old men who dream of you wearing them. Please, please do not buy them! And mothers and fathers out there - please help your children to see what is happening. We still live in a world where men like Garry Glitter and Jimmy Saville are reviled - do not let that ever change. This type of underwear is designed to pander to that very element of society...to take innocence and corrupt it as early as possible!

For all our sakes, get this mini-porn lingerie back where it belongs, on the cutting room floor.

News update

I have just received word that my books will be available through Microsoft's new Digital Bookstore however, should there be a blip with this, as so often happens with new technology, please revert back to the other sales channels.

My latest works are coming along well. Currently I am writing another novel and also a series of animated scripts.

Here is an excerpt of today's chapter from the novel:-

I am a flower, a set of unopened petals which he unfurls with magnificent skill. The question of how and with whom he previously acquired that skill strikes at my heart for a nano-second, but I ignore it. He’s with me now. And that’s all that matters.

I would imagine you can see where that's going...

My other news is very mixed. My original publisher, P'kaboo has become the victim of a terrible tragedy. It's not my place to discuss the private matters of anyone else, so I won't. But please don't be discouraged from purchasing any of the P'kaboo books, either my own or any other author's. I promise you, you'll enjoy them. To those of you who are aware of the situation, thank you for your patience.

Here is the link on Amazon, as the more direct Publisher's Bookshop is currently suspended.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=p'kaboo+publisher&rh=n%3A266239%2Ck%3Ap'kaboo+publisher

I'm also including the link to my other publisher's blog, as they often have much more interesting things than me, to report on.

http://www.uncialpress.com/blog/

As I always say to people - I am the most average person you could meet. But my characters are exceptional and the stories they have to tell are riveting. If you don't believe me, try me.

Until then, happy reading!

Matilda - The Owners, Volume VII: Hunter's Moon

A little peek at Matilda...

Careful you don't look too long though, for she is a feisty one!


Excerpt from The Owners, Volume VII: Hunter's Moon.

Matilda awoke before the others. Taylor lay beside her, his face partially obscured by the arm he had thrown over his eyes to block out the rising sun. Part of her longed to move his arm and gaze at the face she had known so long and so well but her resolve would not let her do so. She had taken on the role as leader of this hunting party and if it killed her, she would neither ask for his support nor subordinate herself to him. 

She owed it to their people to be strong and more than that, she owed it to the little child, Verity, who might already be dead.

Did I cling to her because I have no children of my own? It was a fair question and one she wasn’t entirely sure she could answer. Would I have felt differently if I had had a brood of my own children, clinging to my shirttails like all the other women? she wondered. Either way, does it really matter? Things were how they were, after all. She rose quietly, moving with a catlike grace, unwilling to wake the others until she was no longer sharing a space with Taylor.

On her feet, she circled the group. Everyone slept deeply and she was surprised into a revelation as she bent to shake them awake, one at a time.

“We could have been attacked and killed in our sleep, slaughtered without us even knowing we were in danger,” she said, once she had their full attention.

Taylor sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Well we weren’t. And I think that’s a little unlikely…”

Matilda didn’t give him time to finish. “Why not? You think that monster is afraid of us? After he snatched a little child right out from under our noses and left without even a scratch? Oh yes, he must be very afraid!” She heard the sarcasm in her own voice but was unable to reign it in.

She saw Taylor’s eyes widen in surprise and she instinctively knew it was not from either her words or her tone of voice but the way the criticism was directed straight at him.

“He was too high too fast for the arrows to reach,” he said simply.

“I know,” she agreed, hoping that he understood her frustration. They had been speaking as if there were only the two of them in the conversation, only the two of them standing there, with nothing and no-one else around for miles. Now she turned so that her words addressed them all, equally.

“From now on, we post a guard. If we do somehow manage to find him, the battle has to be on our terms, at a time and place of our choosing, not his.”

She was right, and they all knew it. Enough had been said, there was no point in pressing the issue. She bent and began to pack up their meagre camp.

If you would like to find out more, then follow the link on the right to find the first volumes in this epic tale

Happy Reading!

Latest chapter

Taken from my newest book:-

I neither hold my head up nor down as I walk. Why should I care what anyone thinks of me, when I have no love for myself? But as I reach the school, that huge architectural dream of glass and steel, I hesitate. These gates, this building – all of it – are from another time, another version of me. I force myself to enter the confines of the school. Make my way up the corridor and to my locker. The original key I had is gone, lost in the fire, but someone must have issued me with a new one and given it to Mum, because it was on my bedside table waiting for me.

The key slides easily into the lock as if it was the original but I know it isn’t, and the door springs open. Inside is stuff that was once mine; an old fluffy bear that someone gave me on Valentine’s Day two years ago, a packet of half eaten mints, a hairbrush, pink lip-gloss, an old phone cover and one woollen glove. I stick my bag on the empty shelf, sweep everything else into my hands and take them to the bin. I watch them slide from me to the abandonment of the black plastic receptacle. They are from the time of the old Scarlett and she no longer exists.

I return to the locker, remove my bag and lock it, even though it’s empty. If I leave it open someone might actually put something inside, and then it won’t be the empty vessel it should be. Then it won’t reflect the new me.

I hope you like my little snippets of what I'm currently writing. For a book that I've already brought out with my publishers, see the list to your right. There's also a whole page on reviews.

Happy Reading!

But you see, you do already know me...

Think you've never really read anything I've written? I'm willing to bet that you're wrong... because I'm the hidden face behind lots of articles and advertising copy in a variety of places, many of which would surprise you.

So if you haven't done so already, now that you've discovered you know me so well, it's time to pick up one of my books.

Happy Reading!

A dog called Shadow

Here's an excerpt from the chapter I'm currently writing. The dog has been named Shadow in memory of a real dog I once had and in respect to all the dogs I have loved over the years.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EXCERPT MAY BE UPSETTING

There’s only silence from behind the door and I wonder if she’s gone.

“They said at the hospital we could go for family counselling. Do you think that might help, Scarlett?” she asks quietly from the other side of the door.

“Yes, why not?” Even though she can’t see me, I shrug. “Why don’t we all go and sit in some psychiatrist’s office and tell him about how we heard our dog howling in agony as his fur was scorched from his skin. Why don’t we tell the nice doctors how Shadow howled until his throat was burned, how we could hear him, but we couldn’t get to him, couldn’t save him…  about how loyal he was. He wouldn’t have left us to burn like we left him.”

I can hear my mother openly crying now but still I lash at her with my words. Because just like the wounds I made last night, these cuts help my pain too.

A little bit more of the newest book

Well the new book is well underway, and set to be one of the darkest I have written. This story has been waiting a few years inside of me until it was it's time to come out. I hope you like how it's unfolding:-

I’ve been gone only days from my family, cooped up in the hospital whilst they were all moved into this temporary accommodation and yet it’s like we are strangers, actors put together by a director to portray a normal family. Not that there’s anything remotely normal about this.

“I want to go back to school tomorrow.” The words which leave my mouth surprise me as much as they do her. Somehow the thought bypassed my conscious mind, going straight from my subconscious to my lips.

“But you’ve only just come out of hospital.” That hand reaches for the glass once more, finds it already drained and hovers mid-air, like a little lost bird. I want to catch it, hold it, dip it in the pot of bubbling bolognaise – anything to get a reaction from her that feels just the tiniest bit real.

Happy Reading!

An Exciting New Book

Oh it's a good start to the day...

I have just started to write a story that's been rattling around my brain for about three years. It's going to be a dark one!

Here's the very first paragraph:-

I sit on the hospital bed and wait for them to come for me. The smell of disinfectant is overpowering. It’s too clean, too sterile, as if it intends to wipe out every living thing from the face of the earth. Perhaps it should start with me.

There’s nothing here to look at except the other patients. I try to avoid looking at them, not because it’s rude to stare, but because I don’t want their attention returned to me.

Happy Reading!

Who doesn't like cake?

Come for "Cake with Carmen", a special afternoon of discussing plots and how I write. - Central Library, West Bromwich, 1.30, Thursday March 30th.

I hope to see you there.

A Short Story

Here's a little something I just came across.

I hope you enjoy it.

https://droitwichstandard.co.uk/lifestyle/a-story-of-love-for-valentines-day-by-bromsgrove-author-carmen-capuano-4857/

Happy reading.

Industrious me!

I am incredibly busy at the moment - and loving every minute of it!

Preparations are underway for a library talk I will be giving in a couple of weeks, and I'm working hard on my screenplay, which is turning out to be a lot darker than I had anticipated.

It's funny how that is often the case... I remember saying almost exactly the same thing about Split Decision and Ascension, both of which are very fast-paced and gritty, although completely different.

I guess I'm just that sort of gal - deep and mysterious. ;)

Rooted in real-life, the screenplay follows what happens to one woman when she takes her children and leaves her husband. Because of the subject matter, the language and tone is adult and I think it will resonate profoundly with everyone who has found themselves in this position.

I can't give any more away than that, I'm afraid, but as you will know if you've read any of my books, there will be a few twists and turns and surprises along the way.

So until I write again - happy reading! x

A little music.

Last night I had something of a revelation. I had spent the afternoon at the wonderfully lush Park Regis Hotel in Birmingham, networking and chatting to a variety of people about my recently released book,  Ascension, so I was tired but also a little revved up by the evening.

I was looking forward to a night out in a local pub which has live music. But my two most local pubs were doing the type of music I don't enjoy, so I was forced to look a little further afield.

A few miles from my home, a pub was hosting an Irish musician called Brendan O'Brian. Now even though I was raised in Scotland, I don't have  a particular penchant for Celtic music but it seemed the best option. Needless to say that when I arrived I was expecting a lot of hookity-tewekity music as my grandmother would have called it, and a fair sprinkling of the ilk of Donal where's yer troosers?

But that's not what was on offer. When I arrived, Mr O'Brian was already a little into his show and his audience was clearly lapping it up. Playing a soft rhythmical Irish lilt, I watched him pluck delicately at strings whilst crooning with a good strong voice.

But when he finished the song he changed instruments, tempo and  musical genre and this was a theme he continued all evening, switching effortlessly from guitar to piccolo, electric guitar to drum. Indeed the breadth and range of his musical accomplishments was breath-taking as was the variety of music he produced on them, from Irish Folk songs, through Country, Popular and even Rock, singing songs as varied as traditional Celtic songs of the sort sung in Irish pubs I imagine, to Brown Eyed Girl and I'm A Believer.

And to top it off, he had a wicked sense of humour which he worked on the audience during the lulls when he changed instruments.

So if you're ever in the vicinity of one of the places which has booked this amazing musician, make sure you go - It'll be a night out and a half!

For more information about Brendan contact him on Brendan.sharon@hotmail.co.uk and tell him the Scottish author, Carmen, sent you, and you're sure to get a warm welcome.

Until then, happy reading! x

Busy, busy!

It's a lovely day today and the sun is shining after Storm Doris; I've been up since 6am working and I had planned to tell you all about my exploits.

You see, life has suddenly become even busier than before [and to be honest I hadn't thought that was even possible] and I have barely had time to draw breath since the launch of my newest book, Ascension.

However, I have just taken a call which has demanded my presence at an event this afternoon...

So apologies for the lack of detail - but I promise I will make it up to you.

Until then, 

Happy Reading x.

LOCAL TRADERS LIST

Looking for a local trader? Someone to fix your broken washing machine? Clean your gutters?

Well if you live in the West Midlands or Worcestershire areas, take a look at my local traders page. These guys all come highly recommended.

Today's the day!

You know how there are some things which just take you back... to another place, another time, perhaps even another love? Well one of those songs for me, is Me &Mrs Jones.

Now I know that's a strange choice for a woman, as it's basically about a man who is in love with another man's wife, but it's more about the slow, smooth tempo of the song, and how the melody seems to get right into my heart, than about the lyrics.

That's why I was so excited to discover that the legendary Roy G. Hemmings, [formerly of The Drifters] is performing at the Birmingham REP theatre on the 14th July.

He's running a fabulous line-up of songs, including Love Train, My Girl and loads of others you will instantly recognise. I know I'll be there in the audience, toe-tapping and singing along, will you?

The other reason I'm excited today, is that today's the day that my newest novel, Ascension, comes out. Like an anxious mother waving goodbye to her child on his or her first day of school, I am anxious that Ascension is loved by everyone; that everyone likes and respects it...

Honestly, it's the strangest feeling. People often ask if I am proud when I release a new book. Well for the parents amongst you, do you remember the first time you took your child out in public? How you wanted to show him or her to the whole world, yet also protect them from any harm the big bad world might represent? You do? Well that's exactly how I feel today.

So if you see me out and about today - please be gentle!

And, as ever, happy reading! x

Press Release as featured in newspapers.

Worcestershire author Carmen Capuano is about to make a bit of a stir this month, with the release of her latest novel, Ascension, which she describes as a cross between The Hunger Games and The Da Vinci Code.

“Ascension will make a lot of people uncomfortable. It’s certainly not a book for the faint hearted – and that’s exactly why I was so driven to write it,” says Capuano.
And it’s not the author’s first foray into uncomfortable territory. Split Decision which was published previously, caused a small furore when it came out, for its gritty content. Now, under even bigger publishers, Capuano hopes to earn more acclaim for this newest offering.

“I believe that if a story doesn’t make you sit up and think, then the author isn’t doing their job correctly. People tell me my books are riveting and it’s exactly for that reason that I write them.”

And Capuano is no stranger to controversy. “Having been raised as both a Protestant and a Catholic in Glasgow, I was best placed to see how religion can be used as a tool, to control, and to ignite passions.”  

Set in a dystopian world where unmarried mothers are vilified within their Ascension religion, having their children removed and being used as the under-belly of society, the story is fast-paced and gripping.

“Because of the way I write, each new twist and turn of the plot left me breathless, eager for the next page… Ascension’s world is like a dark mirror to our own, an alternative route through our history and the main character is as strong and as bold as I hope I could be in her circumstances.”

Ascension is available through Amazon and all major book retailers.

Bromsgrove Standard article

Thanks to the Bromsgrove Standard.

My lips are sealed.

There's so much I'd like to tell you... so much about my newest character and the course of her life...

But as with all of my stories, the plots unfold darkly, leaving me breathless and anticipating the next twist in the tale - and exactly because of that, because of those unplanned turns, I am unable to enlighten you, other than to say that you are going to be swept away by it.

Being an author is a strange job. Your head is constantly filled with characters and plots, and often the mundane things in life either pass you by, or take on the greatest significance. Things people say, things they do - and more than that, the actual essence of their personality - gets squirreled away to be scrutinized over and dissected later, in order that it can inform and advise as to how any one of us would react in a given situation.

And believe me, at 50 I have had the benefit of many, many interactions. So don't be too surprised if you read one of my books and lose yourself in it. That's exactly what I'm here for.

Happy Reading. x

Newest work

Hello everyone!

Yes, I am still alive and kicking, even if I haven't posted in a while. The reason for this, is that I have been working hard on my latest project.

I am currently writing a screenplay. This is in some ways a departure from my usual novels and yet it's also a natural progression and vehicle for this gritty, current work.

The story I am creating is tense, sharp and will resonate with its audience. However, due to the adult content of it, I will not be able to post snippets very often, if at all.

So if you need something to keep you amused in the meantime, head over to my books on Amazon - just follow the link on this page.  

Happy Reading.

Exciting New Year?

Did you have an exciting New Year? I hope so!

Whether you did or not, you can banish January boredom by pre-ordering a copy of my latest book.

Just click on the link for Amazon to the right of here, and you will be able to get your hands on Ascension before its scheduled release date.

It's a must-read for 2017.

Happy reading! x