The Grand Plan

Today I'm editing yet another book before I publish it. It's called In The Darkness Between Worlds and I'm enjoying reading through it after having written it about two years ago and not touched it since, as I've been too busy. 

Deciding to take my books back from publishers and to republish them myself has been a real roller-coaster. I've learned a lot, mostly how NOT to try to manipulate certain websites and software. But that's a different story. 

You may know that I'm compelled to write by the stories that bubble out of me, and that I write books as well as for film and TV. But what you probably don't know is my Grand Plan. 

And I have capitalised Grand Plan for a very good reason. It is the thing which has driven me since I was a child - a burning desire to help animals in need. I want to use my sales to be able to fund charities and change the world for the better. It's my deepest desire. 

I'm not interested in material possessions. I never have been. And if you've ever seen me driving around in my old battered car, you'll know the truth of that. For me, riches come in the form of a satisfied soul. So I'm using my profits to fund rescues and to alleviate pain and suffering in animals. 

So why am I making a song and dance of this? Not for adulation or any reason other than to point something out. I'm not asking anything of you. I'm not asking you to send money or take action. 

BUT if you are a reader and you were intending to buy a new book, please consider one of  mine. 

You'll get a great book and I'll be another step closer to helping another animal in need. So we'll both benefit. 

Happy reading! x

SALE ON NOW!

Owners books now £5 per book, or two for £9 - postage extra. Signed copies are available at no extra cost. 

I am bringing out new editions soon, so these books are the last of the first editions. Available as Christmas presents to yourself or loved ones. Contact carmencapuanoproductions@gmail.com

Sale price available whilst stocks last. 

A little snippet

 

 “We have lived in fear and sorrow for many, many years. And believe me when I say that I do not go lightly into war. But there is no bargain to be struck, no words of wisdom that will make everything okay, no way for reparations to be made. Evil is a mould that grows on the face of the discontented. We must eradicate it before it infects others. For once, and for all.”  

Brave words, but just who is speaking them, and why? 

Get ready because the end is near -  The Owners Volume IX.

Full steam ahead!

With a bit of luck I will have lots of news soon. But for now, all I can tell you is that The Owners Volume VIII: Sophia, is coming along really well.

Because for the last few years I have been concentrating on writing scripts for film and TV, I'd forgotten how it felt to write a book. How much weight is carried by each and every single word you commit to paper.

I've also realised that the list of finished works I was compiling, ready to publish, is rather long... so do bear with me just a little while longer.



It's taken me about five years to get on with writing the next volume in the Owners series. During that time I wrote a book about a trans person trying to find their way in the world, a family trying to deal with autism, loss and grief and several sci-fi/dystopian novels, as well as the film and TV mentioned above. So I've been kind of busy...

Sophia's character is only touched upon in Volume I of The Owners. There she is an adult, a leader of her people. In Volume VIII we see how her strength of character came into being, what it was that moulded her into the adult she would become.

I can't help feeling sorry for her. Her life is filled with hardship and loss and yet she herself fills me with hope. Hope for the world, hope for humanity. Because regardless of what he goes through, it doesn't taint her soul. I wish we could all be like that.

And I guess it makes me wonder about how I would have turned out without all the things that served to define my life. If I had stayed in Glasgow... or London, even. This division of pathways, I have already looked at in my novel Spit Decision (Amazon, Waterstones, etc.,) and was looking at further in the screenplay I'm also currently working on. I'll let you know how that goes.

So if you find yourself at a loose end and are looking for something good to read, pick up one of my books and remember - there will be more on the way, very soon!

Happy reading! x

Coronavirus

What a sad state of affairs - a pandemic is terrorising the world and all the sad little trolls have taken to Twitter, stating their hope that the 'Boomer' generation will be wiped out. 

Clearly we have raised many sociopaths alongside our otherwise well-adjusted population. Protected by the anonymity that  social media offers, they try to prey on our social weaknesses but in truth it only serves to highlight their own miserable existences. So for that reason, I'll have done with discussing them here - they're not worth a nano-second of our time. 

I think we are all shocked to be in this position... there cannot be one person who doesn't have family and freinds who are very vulnerable to this virus. 

And even if we self-isolate, I genuinelly can't see how we can do that for more than a month at a time. And what happens during that month? It's too scary to contemplate. 

Meanwhile the heros amongst us - the doctors, nurses, police and army, as well as the supermarket workers, the hospital cleaners, the fire and ambulance services, the lorry drivers who transport our foods, the electricity engineers, the sewage plant workers - they will continue to work, keeping the rest of us going. 

And I'm a little embarassed to be just a writer - a woman whose work is of no real value, serving only to entertain. But that's who I am. 

The world will keep turning whether I write another film or not. But if these heroes above stop doing what they do, the world will indeed grint to a halt. 

So from the bottom of my heart I want to say thank you to all of them!

Stay safe and well. 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!

Just a little reminder.

If you would like to see snippets of ongoing or completed novels which are awaiting publication, you can use the search bar at the side to bring up past blog posts. Type in something you are interested in and it will hopefully come up. Or just scroll down the posts.

Happy Reading!

This Twitter comment made me smile :-


Sajid Javid MP ‏@sajidjavid 8h8 hours ago

Enjoyed this Valentines's Day short story by #Bromsgrove author @carmencapuano http://www.bromsgrovestandard.co.uk/2015/02/14/entertainment-Valentines-Day-story-127005.html … @BromStandard

Details

Feed the birds!

People ask me all the time how I get my inspiration for stories. The truth is always much less exciting than what they probably think. Stories come to me like jokes come to comedians, I would imagine. They pop up in my head, sometimes fully fleshed out and sometimes requiring a little work to join the dots together. But the ones I choose to work on are the ones which have characters who are more than three-dimensional. In my head, these are living, breathing entities in their own right and in some ways I have no more control over them than an absent mother does of her children!

Therefore I didn't set out to write The Boy Who Rescues Pigeons for any other reason than it was a fantastic story idea and I  thought the characters had something powerful to say. But at the beginning I wasn't sure what that would be. Now I do!

This book has been a painful journey for me and one which has been more personal than perhaps many of my other books. You see I was the little girl who fed the birds and I guess at heart I still am her, in all her frailties and foibles.

Life and time moves us all in different directions and sometimes that is far away from where we really ought to be. Slowly I am finding my way back to my rightful place - and will there be pigeons there? You can bet on it.

So introspection over, here is today's snippet, hot off my laptop. 

Oh and to quote Mary Poppins, "Feed the birds, tuppence a bag..."

Brighteyes’s empty box nearly broke his heart and for a moment his mind played tricks on him, making him see what wasn’t there - the little bobbing head, the iridescent sheen of feathers, the bright inquisitive eyes.

His heart held on to the image, eager not to relinquish it to the reality of the empty room, his empty life…

He flung open the window. It was just starting to get dark outside although the hour was not late. No birds flew high in the sky or overhead but he sprinkled the contents of the bag across the outside of the ledge anyway. They would be there ready for the morning and that was for the best anyway.

He ran a hand across the crumbs, evening them out and breaking the bigger chunks into more manageable bite sized pieces. Maybe the pie would attract all different types and sizes of birds, maybe only the braver ones would alight there. Time would tell. But he knew that as long as they were willing to come, he would be willing to feed them.

 

For more snippets of this or other books, take a look at my previous blog posts.

Happy Reading!

A new interview!

Click onto the section on the right hand side of this page to read about my latest interview with storyteller and author, Cat Weatherill.


Cat has travelled around the world, honing and displaying her craft and it was a real pleasure to interview her.


Next week I will be working hard to bring you the latest snippets of my chapters and keeping you generally up to date with my progress.


Until then - Happy Reading!

Hello folks!


Just a quick post as I have an author's talk to conduct today. Here is the link to my recent interview.


http://t.co/4vtsMEm39L


Happy reading!

Who am I? You can call me Carmen or James or...

I took a little bit of The Owners Volume I : Alone and input it into this analysing tool and according to this I write like H.P. Lovecraft.


This was the section I used :


The harsh sunlight, which pierced the window in its strong and direct glare, was now mellowed and softened in the burnished reflections of the polished wooden walls. The knots and imperfections of the wood resembling tiny worlds of intricacies, too complex to be fully understood.


In passing, he glanced through the window to find the view as breathtakingly beautiful as ever. An amazing variety of trees stood like proud sentinels around a spectacular natural lake. Trees stretched on into infinity in every direction – luscious light-green foliage appearing to vie with emerald and jade for the eye’s attention. Yet the trees also seemed to be collaborating with one another, joining forces in an attempt to outdo the drama of the brilliant blue sky reflected in the shimmering perfection of the silvery lake.


This scene, with its myriad colours and composition was so intense and so contrastingly stunning, it almost made San’s eyes hurt. Each tree was unique, either in size or shape or shade to its neighbour, just as the houses lodged within the heart of the tree, sitting snug amongst its highest branches were different. There were large tree houses and small ones, round ones and rectangular ones and even some which didn’t fit any one particular shape but instead were a weird blend of curves and angles.


Similarly the colours of the houses were all different. No, actually he thought, that’s not true. The colour was all the same – green – it was the sheer variety of shades of green which made them seem so dramatically different. Yet what struck San at that precise moment, was how each tree house conformed to and in fact complimented, the size and shape of the tree it was lodged in. It was almost as if each house had merged and blended with the branches to become a living part of its tree.  



Here it is http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8




Then I took this except from The Owners Volume III : Dark Side of The Sun and performed the same analysis :


Jack stepped into the darkness. Even in the seconds that his eyes took to adjust to the lack of light, he was aware that he stood next to Seth once more. There was a musty smell in the room. Dank and with the sharp acrid stench of urine, it was all he could do not to heave. Whoever was in the building had clearly given up all pretence of civilisation.


And they were aware of his and Seth’s presence. There was a vague sound of susurration, as if the person was making soft whisperings to themselves or another but it was too indistinct for him to make out its source or what was said.


“Step back slowly. Do not turn around,” Seth told him without moving.


“Why?” He knew he should probably just do as Seth suggested but having come this far, he wanted to know what they had found.


The susurration seemed to increase in response to his words, as if the person or persons were becoming agitated at the thought of them leaving. “This is why,” Seth slowly pulled a torch from his pocket and flicking it on, levelled it at the darkest corner of the room.


Hair tangled and knotted, what was left of the scalp hung down in front of the skeleton’s face. Whilst not strictly a skeleton, it was how Jack had to think of the body which was even now being hungrily devoured by the biggest pack of coyotes Jack had ever seen.  Bigger than the average dog, their normally lean bodies seemed fuller and longer than normal.



And this was the analysis  http://iwl.me/s/147eabd8




So far, so consistent. Now the biggie. What happened when I put in a section from my latest book [not yet published] Split Decision?.


Here is the excerpt I used :


The atmosphere in the car was suddenly thick with sexual tension. I could feel all of them straining to hear my answer, listening with their groins rather than their brains.

A primitive fear coursed through me riding a tidal wave of doom. There was no right answer here, only a series of wrong answers. My heart pounded at the steel cage it was entrapped within, banged itself into the padded walls around it and no-one heard it scream. No-one but me. Whatever I answered, I was damned if I did and damned if I didn’t! It was a circular route to Hell.

And the result? This time I wrote like James Joyce apparently!  http://iwl.me/s/d760c1b4




Then this excerpt from my current work-in progress, The Plan :


Suzie regarded her companion with wide eyes. None of her friends spoke like this, it was not the type of conversation she was used to having but she liked the honesty of it, the cut and dried truthfulness.

And you will never guess who came out this time! Leo Tolstoy!

And the proof is here  http://iwl.me/s/698342ba

Does that mean I am split personality???


[I wonder what would have happened if I had cut and pasted all the different excerpts into one analysis...perhaps I would have blown the software to smithereens!]

Happy reading!

As you know I have been incredibly busy writing Volume VI of the Owners series. But now that I'm more than half-way through, I think it's time to finish editing my series for children aged 8-10 and finally get them out on the shelves.

The Mellillia books are funny and quirky and are very different to The Owners books. But that is only part of the appeal. Writing books for children requires a certain mind-set - a way of looking at things differently from how we normally view them. It's a refreshing take on our lives as adults and I find myself smiling even as I write.

With The Owners, the writing is more intense, more frenetic and I barely have time to breathe as the words hurtle themselves out of me and onto the screen.


And then there is my adult book which still requires me to sit down and get on with it. This is very different again from either of the two series I have previously mentioned but is just as intense as The Owners but in a very different way.

Finally, there are the other eighty odd stories I still have to write. By my calculation that means I will have to live to about 120 just to get them all out there...

Now where did I put those multi-vitamins again? And why did I just make coffee with cold water...guess the brain won't hold up to 120 after all ;)

Read all about it!

This is a real picture. The people trapped here were rescued alive fortunately but things might have turned out very differently indeed.

The world is becoming just like I predicted....The Owners Volume II : Storm Clouds.

If you haven't yet read it, you are missing out.

Time gentlemen please!

I Started writing at half seven this morning. [It is now 2:30 pm] Finished one chapter of book 6. Spell checked the entire book 5, wrote a blog, answered emails and now going to walk the dogs. That's enough for one day don't you think?

And here is my daily horoscope :-

Not everything has to happen in a hurry. Not every need is urgent, not every promise is pressing. Sometimes we worry far too much about deadlines. We put ourselves under unnecessary pressure. Unless you now have cast iron proof that something won't wait, let it wait! Indeed, even if it won't wait, you may care to ask yourself how much it will matter if it is left unattended. Of the various priorities that need to be identified and honoured, the highest is surely your need to maintain a sense of perspective. Courtesy of Johnathon Cainer.

I guess I should have read that first!!!! ;)

First chapter of book 6!

The Owners, Volume VI : Blood Sky

Here is a little snippet of the brand new Chapter I

Perhaps he would never be the same again. Perhaps when he told his brother Noah and Dan and Aaron what he had seen and now knew to be true, none of them would ever be the same again.

He stumbled over the ground, eager to be back within the safe confines of his home, back in the bosom of his family. But he knew that even then this sickness in his soul would not be purged. Nor could he actually ever let it be. He had to hold fast to it, hold firm. He owed it to those poor, poor souls.

                        ****************

Ah ha...got you there, didn't I? You thought that just because I had started a new book, that I wouldn't also be moving on to Volume VI of the Owners.

Do you really think I have a choice? These characters bang around in my head, demanding a voice. There is only so long they can be ignored...

So don't worry I will keep you up to date on the saga.

Happy reading!

Hello!!!!!

I am pleased to say that I have just finished writing the very first chapter of my newest book.

I have made the decision to write a different style of book whilst also continuing on with the Owners series.

Now this may seem like  a strange decision to make, however it is not done lightly. I have been asked time and time again for a certain kind of book...so much so, that I cannot ignore its rise in popularity.

I can't tell you much about this book, other than it will ring true with most women I have ever encountered. It is a tale of one woman's journey through relationships, minus the hearts and flowers. But it will be a story full of true-to-life characters and realistic situations.

Due to the adult content however, I will not be publishing it under my real name so I will let you guess when the time comes.

As for the  blog, well I will continue to post snippets from The Owners here and talk about anything that takes my fancy.

As ever, you can contact me on facebook or through Carmen.capuano@ymail.com

Almost effortless weight loss...

Ah ha! Here is a new business venture for me.

I have just weighed myself and I weigh EXACTLY 8 stone 8 pounds. If you would like to know how I achieved a few pounds weight loss over the course of 10 days here are my helpful tips.

1. Go for a tonsillectomy...it will hurt like hell and you won't be able to talk but on the plus side, you won't be able to eat either.
2. Blow your oven up. Now you have nothing to cook on, [even if you did work yourself up to be brave enough to try food once more after undergoing option 1 see above].

3. If you are tempted to eat outside of the home, just forget to bring the hospital-issued painkillers with you. That will soon put a stop to that idea.

4. Ensure that before embarking on steps 1-4 that you fill your freezer with foods that your children love but that you hate, so that cravings are reduced.

and finally

5. Should you get hungry at any time, console yourself with a large cool glass of orange juice, even though you know that your body does not react well to this and spend much of your free time in the toilet.

There now you too can lose a few pounds the Carmen way...

Pigeon Power

In Glasgow there is a place in the centre of the city called George Square.

When I was little and lived in Glasgow, my mother used to take me there with bags of corn to feed the birds.

I would sprinkle the seed on my arms and legs and sit with all four limbs outstretched, as the pigeons came and settled onto me to feed and strut about.

Last year I went there with my children. Light of heart and heavy of bag [containing pounds and pounds of corn] I was full of anticipation. I'm not the sort to go all teary-eyed at Christmas but I find the thought of communing with nature and all nature's creatures unbelievably humbling.

But the pigeons were mostly gone and the city itself was almost unrecognisable to me. Yet what hurt the most were not the new unknown shops and buildings that had emerged but the absence of the susurration of beating wings and the loss of the childlike sense of wonder as hundreds of birds flocked to my side for food and admiration.
 
So, come on Glasgow, bring the birds back and let your children have wonder in their souls again.

Prometheus viewed finally!

Prometheus viewed finally!

I has taken me a while to see this film and I was very excited about finally getting to watch it last night.

Having viewed the trailers on tv and the general hype for a while, I was expecting fantastic special effects and sets that looked both realistic and eerie and that was exactly what I got.

Now I am not qualified to write a film review, nor would I be particularly interested in couching my words in pseudo-psychological or technical terms; neither of these interest me, nor do they lend themselves to easy reading. All I intend to do here therefore, is give you a little insight into my opinion on the matter.

I like sci-fi [that's clearly a given, taken the fact that so far I have composed 5 books in that genre]  and although I do not write space operas, I do like to read and watch them. But having now seen this film, which is in effect a prelude to Alien, I am a tad underwhelmed by the formulaic progression of the storyline.

In all of the films, we have a rogue android, mass explosions of the aliens from human hosts and without wishing to compromise the ending for those who have not seen it [look away now, if that is the case], a sole female survivor... with of course a sole alien survivor just waiting in the wings for another crack of the whip.

That said, I did thoroughly enjoy the film; the sets and SFX were fantastical and eye-wateringly realistic at one and the same time and the acting was good and more importantly believable.

I rooted for the heroine, jumped with fear and shock when I was supposed to, I felt her loss and her pain and was heartened by her unique courage.

All good...forgive me then that I wanted the storyline to be a little more unique and little more soulful and insightful into where it blundered towards ideas of creation and the meaning  of life...it was after all, just a film. Made to be enjoyed and not to encourage philosophical ponderings.

But perhaps that's the author in me...

So I will leave you with one final thought...why is it that as a species we hanker after this idea of creation? Why do we want so fervently to discover who or what made us? Is it because we have done such a good job of looking after the planet and each other?

I think not....must be for some other reason then, I guess.

Maybe we all should try to fix what we have in front of us before looking to the stars for answers, because then and only then, might we actually have something to be proud about, if we really did meet our makers. 

[P.S. This view is entirely my own and does not subscribe to any formal religious or non-religious doctrines  ;)  ]