Just James has been nominated for a further two awards! I can't tell you how much this means to me - I'm absolutely stunned but very thrilled.
As well as the Royal Television Society nomination, it has just been announced by Birmingham Film Festival that it has been nominated for "The Audience Vote Award" and also "The Bull Award," which is presented to the best film of the entire festival!
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And don't forget, I also write books.
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.
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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...
I know that I have just announced that I have a new company, but there's even more news coming. The Stratford-upon-Avon Film Festival is almost here.
Get your tickets now.
Screenings 2024 | S-O-A-FilmFestival (stratford-on-avon-filmfestival.com)
It brings us immense joy to announce that our company, Filmmakers United, which has been organising film festivals in the UK since 2015, is now officially registered as a Community Interest Company in Britain.
We are delighted to introduce the new directors of our company:
CARMEN CAPUANO a respected author, screenwriter, and producer;
GARY ANTHONY ROGERS, a Director of Photography, filmmaking tutor, and film festival director;
and LALIT BHUSAL, the founder of Filmmakers United and an award-winning filmmaker and film festival director.
Our Community Interest Company is dedicated to promoting sustainable film festivals/ film production and providing a range of services to support filmmakers in their endeavours.
Soon we will release list of film festivals which we are actively running in United Kingdom and in Europe with our international partners.
Thank you for your love and support.
I'm excited to announce that I am about to re-release Ascension.
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Are you someone who tries to eat healthily? If so I have the answer to your prayers: let me introduce Recipes for Performance Sports.
Devised and edited with nutrition in mind, this little book is packed with great recipes, and at £2.55 it's a steal.
I'm delighted to announce that this sweet little short has been nominated for an award by Midlands Movies. I loved creating and writing the story.
I've lots of announcements to make in the coming weeks but first up...
I'm absolutely thrilled to be part of such an amazing and worthwhile organisation. More details coming soon.
Timing the launch of new books is never easy but this year I've gone all out to publish two new books for World Book Day and for International Women's Day which falls on the following day.
So if you'd like to take a look at Future Perfect for FREE, simply click on this link.
I am absolutely thrilled and delighted to have been invited to be a part of Book Week, Scotland. I hope to see you there!
James, somewhere on the autistic spectrum, is heartbroken when the object of his admiration doesn't reciprocate his feelings.
On the 28th October, I also brought out the second edition of The Owners, Volume 2: Storm Clouds. Since most books are now bought as ebooks, I have a couple of copies of the first edition of this book left. Only 200 copies of the first edition were ever printed, so these are now a limited edition. Please contact me to purchase a signed copy.
I'm delighted to tell you that Cursed is now available to buy. You can find it on Amazon or contact me to request a signed copy.
Working with the amazing performance chef and former athlete, Zena Weeks, we have brought out the recipe book Recipes for Performance Sports.
It has been carefully crafted for performance athletes but in actual fact the recipes are so healthy and nutritious, they are great for everyone.
You can order your copy by clicking on the link above.
Let me start by saying that I'm not a huge fan of period drama. I watched quite a bit of it when I was in my teens and the choice of TV viewing was limited to what broadcasters decided to transmit, so up until now I have only dipped in and out of series 1-3 of The Crown. But Series 4 came with the promise of a period of history I actually knew about first-hand. I had lived though it, so my curiosity was aroused. I'd seen the sumptuousness of previous episodes of the show and the stellar performances of the cast in a variety of other roles so my expectations were high.
Any dramatisation of real events is made by merging the representation of the facts and the interpretation of them by the writer, the director and the producers. So in order not to be swayed in my judgement of the series by my memories of that time, I watched an episode and then the real footage before and again after, for comparison.
What struck me straight away was that The Crown has been made with the advantage (it could be argued, disadvantage) of very long-reaching hindsight. As such it represents key figures - Charles and Diana - as equally complicit in creating a fiction for the nation. In particular, it portrays Diana both as fundamentally dim and/or naïve, whilst also being manipulative and cunning. In truth it's difficult to see how she could be both dim and cunning simultaneously.
I was a teenager when Charles and Diana married and these scenarios played out in real life. Whilst I've never been particularly interested in the monarchy, nor a fan of them in general or of Diana in particular, like every young girl of the time I followed the romancing of the Princess-to-be and watched the royal wedding. I saw the camera footage that captured Diana's doe-eyed gaze upon her future husband, the seemingly shy girl who was still willing smile for everyone she met. And I saw the way Charles seemed genuinely taken by her.
In The Crown, Diana's coyness is over-egged. Forced even. She appears to already know her eventual fate of readily discarded and unloved wife, not to mention the legacy she will leave behind her with her premature death. Every scene is over-played for more than it's worth... and then some.
For younger viewers or those who have no first-hand recollection of this period, and in particular for those not residing in the UK, it might seem that the writing was on the wall. Indeed in many scenes the viewer almost feels as if there must surely be a violinist waiting in the wings for a grand entrance. Whilst I am no real fan of the monarchy, I admit to feeling uneasy that Diana is made out to be a simpering, cunning yet whimpering ingenue, whilst Charles seems torn between his heart and his duty.
What is represented on screen is a duplicitous relationship where both parties seek only to fulfil their own needs and wants. And in that, perhaps in truth it is no different to any real courtship. Except for one thing. Re-watching the real archive footage I couldn't help but believe both Charles and Diana entered into marriage in the belief that they could make it work. Yes, we all know in hindsight that Charles still had a dalliance (for lack of a better word) with the very married Camilla going on at the time, but let's face it, he wouldn't have been the first man to believe that he could get over one woman by getting under another...
The script has been well written, the dialogue realistic and all too plausible and I cannot fault the amazing performances by the excellent cast, which includes Olivia Coleman. Therefore I feel the fault is in the direction. The too-simpering coy looks of Diana, the hesitant, falseness of Charles, the almost tally ho attitude of Camilla's every scene.
It's not the words they speak to one another that rings so untrue, it's the tilt of their heads, the arch of their backs, the tell-tale signs that they don't believe a word they utter. And that, dear friends is what happens when you already know the ending of a story. Charles couldn't fall in love with Diana because he couldn't fall out of love with Camilla. Diana died. The rest, very literally, is now history and Camilla is now Queen Consort.
But did this little triangle of human beings know that's how things would turn out? Could they have had any inkling? Of course not. Sad to say that if the direction had been played differently I would be raving about The Crown Series 4. Unfortunately it wasn't, and I'm not.
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.
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.
Two weeks ago I released the family drama The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons. It was to be my third book release of 2023. (I wrote about my inspiration and reason for this book which you can find if you scroll down a few posts.)
Somewhere between releasing the dystopian science fiction novel Future Imperfect and The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons I realised I needed help. If you've been following my books, you'll already know that all my profits go to animal charities, animal rescues and children's charities, so paying for advertising has always been contra-intuitive for me. I wanted to be able to give money to the various global charities and rescues, and I couldn't do that if I was spending the money on advertising... But sales were less than great. And little money coming in meant that little money could go to good causes.
And then a strange thing happened. The interest in The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons was obvious, even before I released the book. This interest has far outweighed any of my other books and the love that I have felt from readers and other authors has taken my breath away. Two in particular have been a great source of information on marketing and advertising, things I'd never really done before. Between them they have advised me on a variety of marketing approaches, all of which I'm trying out. Hopefully the money spent on advertising will generate more money that I can use to help save and improve animal and children's lives.
So why do I give my profits away? Well I'm naturally frugal (some would go so far as to say tight), but I prefer the term careful. I'm not a shopper, I don't eat meat and I don't like fine wines. I'm generally happy with a Greek salad and a shandy. I don't often go on holiday as I have a low boredom threshold and I miss my pets too much and I have no expensive hobbies. Sounds boring, right? Well it probably is to most folks.
But it serves my purpose. Back when I published my first few books, I stood in the middle of the Bromsgrove branch of WHSmith and sold signed copies and every penny of profit went to a charity to support a young, disabled local girl. Being able to help her and her family in this small way made me feel a hundred times better than any material possession could ever have done. So it's not an entirely altruistic one-way transaction. I get something from it too. If I can save one cat/dog/squirrel/pigeon or help a child, then my time on this earth will have had a greater purpose. And that's what drives me.
Since I began writing, I've used my profits to help a number of other charities globally. I've never given more than £50 at a time to any cause, so we're not talking life changing sums of money for them, although I hope one day to be able to do that, but it's enough to help ease their struggle just a little. And sometimes that's the difference between an animal being rescued or not. A life being saved or not.
Many of my books deal with social issues. Jigsaw Girl (currently reduced to 99p) deals with teenage peer pressure, guilt, self-esteem issues and cutting, Split Decision deals with coming of age insecurities, pressures and dangers, and The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons deals with isolation, lack of understanding, loneliness and a social inability to fit in. They are things that most of us will encounter in one way or another during our lifetime. Life can be tough. My books are not self-help manuals, they are compelling stories that I hope help people make sense of the world around them; that let readers see that they are not alone; and that have the power to make people really stop and think.
So now that you know all about why and what I write, I do hope you'll take a look at some of my books. Your purchase will help change the world just a little. Doesn't that sound like a good enough reason to buy?
x
