I conducted a second book signing and book talk/reading last night at Bleakhouse Library and had a wonderful time yet again.


It's always lovely to speak to a receptive audience and the folk who turned out to see me last night were both welcoming and interesting. I talked about my series of books The Owners and also about my novel Split Decisions, which is just starting on the editing process. In return I was asked lots of questions about the development of the plot within The Owners and my writing in general.


But what struck me most was how enthusiastic the audience were. As a writer it is easy to get caught up with the characters and plots of your own fabrication but it is quite another to see it in a reader.


I hope that the audience enjoyed it as much as I did!


I am returning to Bleakhouse on the 4th of April as I have been invited to deliver a prize to a winner of a school/library literacy competition. Again I will be talking about writing and available for book signings.


How I love my job! :)

Help! I'm in trouble!

Do you remember my blog about helping out in a friend's office whilst the secretary was away on a cruise? If not scroll back a little...


Anyway she is back now and not too happy with me!


The office is situated at the back of a factory. My dad used to work in a factory. My mum used to work in a factory and even ex-boyfriends of mine have worked in factories, so I don't hark from a blinkered existence.


I understand the high jinks that go on there, the banter and camaraderie and I also understand that there is a level of pornography that is acceptable within the confines of the actual factory unit.


However I did not expect to be sitting at a desk with a large calendar of a naked woman at my back, especially since this was a female dominated office!


The said naked female was beautiful and the image was artfully composed, lit in subtle tones of granite and light grey...but hey in my eyes a woman with no kit on is still a woman with no kit on.


Short of being a woman who actually enjoys another naked female [which I'm not] I really didn't want to be confronted with another woman's breasts every time I reached for the phone.


But I didn't want to just remove the calendar as it was not my place to do so. So I typexed a white bra and pants onto the lovely lady. even for me it was a good rendition. That white correction fluid makes a lovey lacey look over photographic paper I discovered.


To my eyes it was a compromise. Lovely lady stayed up on the wall in her artful pose and I didn't have to keep seeing her bits.


Ah but not so when the real secretary arrived back. Turns out that the calendar was given to her by her husband and came from his factory. She is livid!


Ok I get that it wasn't mine to deface but I have to ask myself why a lady would want such a thing up behind her, especially when the lady is almost at retirement age and in no way resembles the image herself.


So I am in the dog house! ;)


But I have only one thing to say. NOT sorry!


Maybe if the country was a bit more modest in general and we were not confronted with semi-pornographic images at every turn our culture would not be deteriorating the way it is...


Think on it a bit, why don't you?


x

I am working now on my teen novel. It's very dark and reflects the world we live in today. There are times when it is funny and times when it is romantic but mostly its real. This is a book for the over 15's for a reason...


I also have a lot of exciting irons in the fire at the moment! Right now my lips are sealed but keep your eyes on this blog for when I am able to tell you what I hope will come through for me!


Until then - happy reading!


Carmen.

This will hopefully be the cover for The Owners, Volume IV: A New Epoch. Isn't is beautiful? It was specially created for me by the wonderfully talented Martin Darcy. Visit his Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/martin.darcy2?fref=ts.

Before I tell you about my adventures in Redditch last Saturday, when I was doing a book signing event, let me show you this.

It is an open letter to the readers and comes at the end of Volume VI. I think it adequately conveys how I feel.

A word from the author.

I am very sad to say that this volume sees an end to the story of Jack, Georgia, Seth, Laurie and all the others.

I have tried to give each and every one of them their time in the sun, a little space to tell their own stories and I think it has been the making of them…

More than a few tears have been shed by me in writing these books and I will miss the characters dearly – they have become a part of my everyday life. Their voices sound in my head, their images flit before my eyes and I’m sure that they will remain in my heart forever.

But I wonder if you are left uneasy that you do not know how things will ultimately work out for them?

So just in case you do, I would like to reassure you that they continue to face their tribulations in life, as indeed we all do but from the end of this volume, their road becomes a little smoother, a little less fraught and climactic!

Volume VII will see some new characters arrive, so I hope you will join me in welcoming them and wishing Bon Voyage to the old ones we loved so well…

Goodbye Jack, Georgia, Laurie, Seth, Parm, Delilah, Eden and all you others. X  

Carmen Capuano.

Now to tell you about Saturday! 

The shopping centre was busy and there was a lot of interest in my books. Sales were high and it was lovely to speak to readers of all ages.

 

But that's not what I wanted to tell you about. What I want to tell you is far, far stranger...

First of all I was approached by some old friends whom I haven't seen properly in a few years as they were originally friends of an old ex-partner from twenty years ago. We exchanged pleasantries and then promised to meet up at Christmas.

Some time later, I had a further revelation.

Stationed as I was by the side of a broken elevator, I was addressed by a stunning woman who initially turned to me to enquire how she could get to the upper floor.

But on turning around to answer her question, I triggered a recognition on her part.

"Carmen!" she exclaimed. "Don't you recognise me?"

Now the truth is that I speak to so many people and in so many different places that although I often remember a face, I cannot always put a name to it.

But there was something about her which was incredible familiar!

It turned out that she was my ex-sister-in-law from over twenty years ago, when that same ex as mentioned above, had been my current partner.  

We had both been young women at the time and although once she revealed her identity to me, it seemed ridiculous that I should not immediately identify her, as we had been in each others' lives for eight years, it also seemed a ridiculously long time ago.

We talked and caught up on how life had been for us in the intervening years and there was a warmth between us that I don't ever remember feeling away back then.

It seemed that life had mellowed us both and the former rivalry that I remember so well, had crumbled into the dust of time.

And it made me wonder why we had ever been rivals in the first place!

With a melancholy sadness in my heart I watched her depart. She was a part of my old life and had no place in my here-and-now but it was strange to hear about the family I had once been a part of and no longer was. [There's a book in there - just wait!]

But the day was to get even stranger.

Some time after she left, a very ordinary but well presented gentleman approached me.

"You have some clairvoyance in you," he declared, eyeing me with his head cocked to one side as if peering into my very soul.

I didn't know at first whether he was referring to the plots within my books and how they could so easily come to pass, or whether it was something deeper.

"Well..." I responded unsure what to say.

"I know you do, because I have some too!" he said.

And you know what I thought? I thought ok, crackpot alert!

But then he said some things about me and my life which really made me wonder, because they referred to things which had actually come to pass.

So between seeing long lost in-laws and this man, I had a rather strange day.

I made great sales and had a good time but there was also that sense of the Ghost Of Christmas Past, courtesy of all my visitors and I began to feel the whole thing was more than a little spooky...

So this Saturday, when I am doing signings in WHSmith in Birmingham, if you once brought a cat to the vet's I used to work in, or bought one of my old houses, perhaps it might be best NOT to tell me...I might just freak out entirely and run away screaming.

Because if the Ghost of Christmas past keeps turning up, I dread to think what the Ghost of Christmas Future is going to show me!

 

Merry Christmas folks and Happy New Year!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry!

Sorry readers...I feel I have neglected you a little but I have been so busy writing Volume VI and taking bookings for my talks/ creative writing sessions, that I have not had any time to blog!

In fact I have spent a large part of today booking in schools and exhibitions etc. who want me to conduct talks/ creative writing sessions and so on. So here is the schedule for the next couple of weeks.

I will be at a school in Sandwell doing author talks next week, followed by the Women of the Year Luncheon Awards on 11th October and I will also be holding talks about writing sci-fi and conducting writing workshops at Avoncroft Museum on November 16th.

In between these times I may be coming to a library or school near you...just when you thought you were safe...!

I hope to see you at one of these events. But if you can't make them you can still contact me at Carmen.capuano@ymail.com

Happy reading!

Carmen.

Why Blood Sky is Blood Sky!

Well its 11am and I have just finished another chapter of The Owners, Volume VI. This one explained the title choice.

I still think it's strange how I write...how the words just come to me seemingly out of nowhere. But it works and I am grateful for that.

Sometimes I have to dash to find a little scrap of paper just to jot down a line a character has said in my head. When that happens [and it happens a lot] it is always meaningful and I always use the line.

I know that some authors work in the same way and others are more methodical in their approach, writing beginning, middle and end and sometimes not only a synopsis but a breakdown of each and every chapter before they begin. Each to their own is my motto, although I think I would get very bored if I had to write in that way.

Must dash...have to find another little bit of paper... :)

The Owners, Volume V : Eyon Rising

Oh I know it's the summer holidays but much as I'm enjoying the sun and the leisure time, I'm itching to get back to editing Volume V of my debut series and then to begin Volume VI. You see I know what is about to happen...

This is what I put as my Facebook status this morning :-

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 lunchbags 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, beedy 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!

 

Wrong again!

Ok, ok, far be if from me not to admit I was wrong!

I got everyone up this morning, screaming in a hoarse whisper that it was already quarter to eight and that just because it was the last day of term, they should not all be late.

And last day of term or not, it's a busy one. Sophia has her leavers assembly and Ryan has a dental appointment. In between those times a courier had to be booked and four bathrooms were in desperate need of cleaning.

It was only on emerging dripping from the shower and pulling clothes over me, even as I rushed downstairs, that I found all three of my children at the dining room table, enjoying a leisurely breakfast.

"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!!

OOPS!

Never mind, the courier is booked and the bathrooms are all sparkling.... ;)

A Vision.

I went to see a clairvoyant a year ago, having been recommended to him by a friend, who was herself recommended by another friend.

It was a fascinating experience and I remain open-minded. However several particularly interesting things did come from it. One of the most pertinent things was that I was so open-minded. Where I had thought that I was pretty decided on what I wanted to happen in  my future, I found that I was unable to dismiss this man's alternative viewpoint. It wasn't that what he told me was so earth shattering that it was beyond disbelief, it was more that I lacked the conviction in my own vision, to see that it was in fact a real possibility.

To that end, his viewpoint seemed infinitely more probably than my own. My past had already attested to the likelihood of his view becoming more likely than my own and although he knew none of it, there was a clear and distinct pattern to be seen.

Now, a year on, I can see that other things he said are coming to pass...so perhaps there is something in it after all...

However there remains the question of how much I read into his words and how much effort I have put into them becoming reality. I am trying to step back from destiny and allow it to do it's thing but I admit that it is not an easy thing to do.

I'll let you know how I get on.