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

Scheduled Book Signing and Talks for the next few weeks.


You will find me in the following places over the next few weeks.


March 25th Bleakhouse Library.
March 26th Dudley Library.
April 4th Bleakhouse Library [school event]
April 23rd daytime Droitwich Library
April 23rd evening Bromsgrove Library
April 25th Halesowen Library event.


I will be talking about my popular series The Owners and selling signed copies.


I will also be revealing insights into my newest book which is still in progress, entitled Split Decision.


Please contact the individual relevant library for times and directions.


I hope to see you there.


Carmen.

I SALUTE YOU!

Good morning! May I help you?


For the last two days I have been helping out in the office of a friend as the company's secretary has gone off on holiday [ a cruise I believe - lucky lady!]


And what a lark I have had...I got dressed up  in proper office attire, styled my hair and applied both perfume and makeup. I honestly looked like a different person - the kids almost didn't recognise me when I walked through the door!


But it's made me realise something. As a mom who is home all day writing, my kids NEVER have to fend for themselves. They don't put their dirty plates in the sink, they don't help out with chores and they wouldn't even be able to make a slice of toast for themselves if they had to.


Therefore these last two days have been an eye-opener for us all. Because I had to leave home before the kids, my eldest had to lock up and then let them all back in again at the end of the day. The kids learned to wait for their tea and accept that I was truly going as fast as I could.


Most importantly of all, in my opinion, they saw what other kids lives are like - and so did I. The constant organising at the start and end of the day to ensure that the house and its occupants ran smoothly whilst I was out working...and the sense of having to pull together to achieve the best end result for all.


The lists of instructions to make sure the lights were off, the doors locked etc...


The walking of dogs at 7am so that they were not neglected....


The cooking of the evening meal in high heels and a tight skirt because the kids would have expired if I had taken five minutes out to change...


These were all things that were strange for me and yet familiar to many other women worldwide I am sure.


So Ladies [and Gentlemen as I am aware some of you men hold down this demanding home/work balance] I take my hat off to you!


For all the times you went without milk in your morning coffee because to have used it meant there would be none for the kids cornflakes...


For the legions of you who slam the dinner in the oven, still wearing your business clothes of the day...


For those of you who perform a whirling dervish of spins with every activity, holding so many balls in the air at once that if they fell, the weight of them descending on you would crush you into the asphalt beneath your feet...


I salute you!


Because fun as this was, it was also exhausting and draining. So tomorrow I'll be back in my jeans and t-shirt and back to my beloved writing! See you there!


Carmen x

GLAD TIDINGS!


Good news! Volume IV is now showing as available on Amazon as an ebook [the paperbacks apparently take up to a month to show up - I have no idea why] and is priced at £2.00.


My other good news is that sales figures have just come in for Volume II and Volume III. Sales show that people who have bought and read Vol I are coming back for the follow on volumes, so happy reading all round!


As a writer its so lovely to know that you are enjoying the tales, journeying through the intertwined lives of the characters and empathising with them.


I think that is the real beauty of a good read...we all want to get lost in it but we want to find ourselves through it too and I hope that my stories provide at least some measure of that.


I will be at the wonderful Bleakhouse Library, [0121 422 2798]West Midlands, giving a talk on writing and my books on March 25th. The staff at the library are also taking pre-orders of signed copies of Volume III and will be happy to take your booking.


I visited this library about eighteen months ago when my first novel was published and the staff and customers are an exceptionally friendly bunch so do pop along.


I look forward to meeting you.

Update as promised!


The Owners
The Owners Volume IV should be appearing on Amazon at any moment and I thank you for your patience. It has been a long haul and although the writing of this particular volume progressed very nicely, there has been one hitch after another in getting it to press.


The Decision.
As you may remember, this was a story I began long, long ago [probably about 6 or seven years ago] and had to abandon for various reasons.


I came back to it recently with the intention of finishing it off and giving myself a break from The Owners series.


It wasn't hard to get back into the characters or to visualise where they were going and how they felt about it but what was almost impossible to do, was recreate the way in which I told the story.


You see I have changed! Yes this has become a big revelation to me. The chapters I wrote all those years ago have had to be changed, moulded to fit my newly emerged style.


It wasn't that they were badly written to begin with - indeed far from it but my writing is now stronger, more gritty with a hardened edge and I can only credit this to the success of The Owners.


Where once before I looked in from outside at the characters in The Decision, now I am submerged in the very core of them. Consequently they have more depth, feeling and colour than ever before.


At first I thought that I was imagining this, however even my proof readers have remarked upon it, so I realise that it must be true. I wonder if this means I have finally grown up. I suspect not. I think it merely means that I have achieved a level of introspection that I could or would not attain before...


I hope The Decision will be out in the summer. Until then I will keep you informed of developments.

Forget what I said earlier about staying put...I desperately want to move!


You know I can almost see the men amongst you raising your eyebrows at my about-turn but the truth is that the heart wants what it wants...and mine desperately needs to move.


I have seen a house that I have irrevocably fallen in love with. It is a house with soul and a beating heart and it calls my name every time I pass it. You can think me crazy if you wish but this house is calling to me, pulling me in and nurturing me with images of how my life could be if only I could call this particular place home...


And I am listening with heart as well as ears, with a breathless anticipation of what could be if fate and fortune really do favour the brave and the earnest.


The neighbours to this property are lovely and there is a good feeling to the place...its like coming home after a long absence when no-one berates you for how long you have been gone or how distant you have had to be.


It just feels right.


I am a great believer in gut instinct. But even more than that, I believe in listening to my heart.


And my heart is shouting out this house's address.


Wish me luck readers - I hope I am about to embark on a whole new chapter!

COMING SOON!

I am always itching to get back to writing after any holiday and this half term is no exception.


I have never been one of those writers who sit staring at a wall for long stretches of time. But sometimes I wonder if the sense of achievement they feel at the conclusion of a book is greater than mine. Is it all the more satisfying to metaphorically lay their pen down after a hard and ferocious struggle to compose their thoughts into words? Or do they feel exactly the same as I do?


The reason that this is on my mind is twofold. Firstly, the fourth Volume of The Owners will be released imminently. And secondly - when the kids do go back to school I have to write the ending to The Decision and then begin the long editing process [and this one requires an extensive edit] but it is the final home stretch.


The finessing of a work is not as difficult as visualising the concept in the first place or transposing those thoughts and ideas into words that other people can relate to...it is merely the gloss put on afterwards.


And when it is finished? What will I feel?


There is a strange sadness that accompanies the ending of any book. The author has to say goodbye and good luck to the characters and like a mother, stand back and watch them rise to the surface or fall flat on their face.


And there is a heartbreak in there too.


But most of all, like a fickle lover, there is a desire to move on to the next book, the next concept, the next set of new characters...


I'll keep you informed of my progress.  :)

A snippet from my latest book The decision.


This book is very different to The Owners series both in content and in writing style. In particular it will appeal to fans of Stephenie Meyer, as it has a strong love interest theme which blends and interacts with the plotline. Here is a little taster:-


“Oh!” I was unaccountably sad, as though he was leaving me already. I had no hold over him, no right to ask him to stay and yet I felt crushed at the thought that he was prepared to leave me at some future date.  


Funnily enough, I started this book years ago but had to abandon it to pursue something else. Only now that I have come back to it can I see so much more clearly where the story is going. It is hard hitting and reflects the world we live in today...not an easy thing to do in many ways.


I will keep you posted as to how it's getting on.


In the meantime I hope that The Owners Volume IV will be out in less than two weeks! Exciting times!

Now it's not that I am ignoring you or have abandoned you...but have you had the feeling since New Year as I have, that time is just running away with you? Or is that just me?


Normally I find January such a slow month - things seem to slow to a crawl and nothing much happens. But this January has been very different in many ways and I can't help but wonder why.


Granted I have been incredibly busy. I have pushed Volume IV: A New Epoch into publication and am fast forwarding Volumes V and VI into print and I am also working on two brand new stories, one for ten year olds and one for teens, as well as other books in the pipeline.


Perhaps another reason is that I have been taking a multitude of bookings for school creative writing sessions, library talks and other such events [I will blog a list of these soon].


Added to that, I have decided to stay put in my house for a while, rather than sell up and so have organised a complete change, from the curtains around the house to new furniture...no mean feat let me tell you when you are battling with three children and two dogs just to keep your head above water on a daily basis. 


But I must tell you about my most recent stupid situation. You know my habit of getting lost whenever I go somewhere unfamiliar...


I went to view a house recently. I looked up the directions on google maps and laboriously copied them down [yes I know you can print them out but that involved turning the printer on, waiting ages for it to ready itself, only to discover I had no black ink, paper or something else!] and set off.


What I had failed to realise was that there were two identically names streets within a reasonably short proximity [4 miles apart] and I had looked up the wrong one!


Only on arrival at the wrong place did I realise my mistake and had to then set about finding the other street. As usual I reverted to asking residents for directions. The first man  pulled up to was visiting the area. I drove on.


The second man I pulled up to [for some reason there were no women around like some strange post-apocalyptic land where only the men had survived! -As if - sorry men!!] turned out to be profoundly deaf and mimed back to me that he didn't have a clue what I was on about!


Now since he was sanding at the edge of what I presumed to be his property, with apparently not a care in the world, I had to wonder what he was up to other than hijacking the time of lost strangers.
I apologised profusely as if his deafness was my fault and left in a flurry, probably leaving him even more mystified as to what the harried middle-aged woman was on about.


The third and final man I approached was more helpful.
"My wife was born there," he said with a touch of infinite sadness which made me think that the recollection was painful to him.
"I'm so sorry. Is she dead?" I responded with appropriate sympathy.
"No, she's in Tenerife!" he replied.


He gave me directions and I followed them to the letter only to find myself up a cull-de-sac and lost once more. Luckily he had only gone slightly wrong and the street I was looking for was the next one. Sad to say that after all that, the house was not what I was looking for at all!


So if you are standing on a street corner and a harried looking woman pulls up to you, please be kind, it just might be me!


x

I don't usually put external links on here but this is something I just had to share.


I don't think there is a single phrase here I don't use on a daily basis.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nem0bkErGVY

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.

"Let your spirit roam free and do what you heart knows is right - ignore those who oppose you and try to restrict you, for they are devoid of imagination." Carmen Capuano.

All Change.

You may already be aware that The Owners Volume IV : A New Epoch will soon be published and appearing on Amazon and all the usual places. Volumes V and VI are also written and currently being prepared for publication, however I am now taking a short break from the Owners series.


There are a few reasons for this. One is that writing a ten part series without a break is very draining, another is that there are a few other stories and characters who are clamouring for my attention  and the final reason is that demand for me to write other genres is very high.


So in order to acquiesce, I am now working on a number of other projects, one of which is now almost a quarter done. This particular story is a departure for me as it is more thriller than anything else and is aimed at 15+ because of both content and language.


As an author it's hard not to feel for your characters. You want them to have an easier time in life than the story allows and it is no different for the main character of this book. Natalie is just a young girl who makes one stupid mistake...


But as we all know, one mistake can be one mistake too many!


Anyway as this was only a quick blog catch up, I'll leave you with a snippet from today's writing.


Taken from The Decision.
 


        The kiss when it came was the sweetest thing I could ever have imagined. A light feathery touch of lips upon lips, it was a promise of strawberries and sunshine and a guy at my side to share it all with.

Thank you, thank you, thank you!


Many thanks to Droitwich Library for their invitation to conduct a book signing event during their Space Day on Saturday. And a heartfelt thank you to all the people who bought my book.

I had a fabulous time and met lots of really great people!

Welcome back! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year. Mine unfortunately was a mixed bag and I suspect it will continue to be so for some considerable time :(

Anyway as they say in Scotland, "out with the auld and in wi' the new!"

Now I would like to tell you a little tale of what happened to me just before Christmas.

'Twas the night afore Christmas [actually it was the 23rd but what the heck] and all was still and quiet all around. I had a friend staying over and the house was festive and Christmas looking. Tinsel adorned picture frames, cards littered the mantelpiece and hearth and there was a large glowing fibre-optic tree in the lounge window and another two scattered around the house.

As usual I had several items which had just sold on Ebay, one of which was my old dining room table set and I was awaiting its collection. My friend and I had just returned from walking the dogs and both humans and canines were dishevelled and muddy.

The children were excited and all around us there was much high pitched talk and laughter, children racing each other up and down the stairs and causing the biggest dog to whirl around and around, trying to catch her own tail in anticipation of some extraordinary event. The very air was charged with adrenaline and the scent of some long awaited pleasures and surprises.

It was at that precise moment that the doorbell rang and I ushered in a very dapper looking Asian man who turned out to be my Ebay buyer. Having returned late from the walk, I had not had time to dismantle the table as I had assured him I would do, so I did as any insane Scottish five-foot-two author would have done - I lied!

"I was thinking that to save you the bother of having to assemble it with all its various parts," were there various parts, I had no idea but I was into the bluff now and damned if I was going to fall at the first hurdle I encountered, "and as I knew you were bringing a big van for the collection," I had known no such thing but luckily he had turned up in a big white van, "you might want to take it out assembled and save yourself some bother." I actually managed to nod sagely at myself as if it was the best idea ever spoken aloud.

The dapper Asian gentleman agreed. So we began, the Asian man at one end of the table and my friend at the other. We tried to manoeuvre it through the lounge door into the hall ...no way was that happening! The legs of the table almost jammed in the door frame and we had to beat a hasty retreat.

But of course there was the piece de resistance - the patio doors which led from the conservatory to the back garden. We got the table back through the double doors from lounge to dining room and then dining room to conservatory and finally the outside with no ill effects. But the brick walls of the side passage which leads from back garden to front were a daunting obstacle. Unbending and unyielding they stood steadfast in their foundations and taunted me with their narrow confined space.

There was nothing for it but to dismantle the table - there would be no other way of removing it from the home. My mind searched through the old memories of the ex-boyfriend who had assembled the table originally. I remembered there had been a lot of cursing and many tools and instruments used in the process. But for goodness sake, it was a table...not a build-your-own-house-kit, how complicated could it be? Then I remembered that half-way through the job he had left to buy some bolts...there were bolts holding the table together! My blood ran cold. How on earth was I going to get the table dismantled with the new owner looking on? In absolute panic I turned to my friend.

Like a horse fed on a diet too rich in oats I must have resembled nothing more than a panicked little pony [I would have liked to say horse but that's stretching the truth a little too thin.]

Lips pulled back in a tight grimace and eyes rolling wildly, I assured the buyer that my friend would have the table dismantled in a jiffy. The Asian man went back outside to tell the van driver that there was a delay. It was at this point that it started to rain.

Huge sheets of glacier drops shattered to the ground, soaking everything in their path within seconds. Like rapiers, the raindrops sliced through clothing and footwear; mini heat-seeking missiles which leached the warmth from bones and the humour from hearts.

I could tell that by now the Asian gentleman was no longer impressed. I went back inside to see how my friend was faring.

Like an old beloved relative who is past his prime but wishes to be shackled to the home he has known and loved for so long, the table seemed to be resisting all his efforts to dismantle it. And even more unfortunately the house appeared to be colluding with it! I watched transfixed as the first screws were removed and promptly fell into the cracks between the dining room floor boards. I lunged across the room and using a butter knife, began to frantically gouge the minuscule gap in order to retrieve the screw. Hair plastered to my scalp by rain and the thin sweat of fear and embarrassment I grappled with it until I managed to clasp it in my damp palm.

Meanwhile my friend had moved on to the bolts. The table fought bravely, seeming to withdraw the bolt heads deeper into their holes and securing them there with a determination I had not known an inanimate object could possess. My friend persevered. The table resisted. My friend grunted and groaned. The table remained quietly victorious. Until with a quickness of wrist and keenness of eye my friend held the table a certain way, twisted the bolt whilst simultaneously pushing away from it and in one fell swoop, the table was finally undone, mastered, defeated.

And somewhere inside the very pit of my stomach it felt like a hollow victory...perhaps it was the presentiment of things yet to come...

We carried the table remains outside. By now the unrelenting rain had turned to hailstones of the most frightening kind. Huge balls of ice struck us as we hurried the wooden parts to the two men waiting in the white van.

It was on the first return journey that my friend turned a peculiar shade of white. "Get a bit of paper and take down their registration," he hissed at me theatrically.

"Why," I hissed back, just as theatrically [I hate to be outdone and have a terrible competitive streak.]

"Just bloody do it!" he sniped back, seemingly in a mood not to be outdone. But something about the thin set of his lips and anger in his eyes made me bite back any words which came immediately to my mind.

So it was that I stood outside of my house, in slippers and drenched clothing, in front of the van and tried to look as if I were inconspicuously eyeing up my neighbours property when in fact I was memorising the licence plate of the van for God knew what reason.

But being me, I could not bear the suspense and begged my friend to let me know what all the cloak and dagger stuff was about.

"You know when we went out with the first lot of wood from the table?" he said slowly, as if talking to a demented five year old.

"Yes?" I said, trying and failing to hide my annoyance.

"Well I noticed my car door was slightly open and the glove compartment lid was down... and my satnav is gone! Those men have stolen it."

"Well, I will go and confront them!" I said, feeling like I could now take on the world even though my knees were knocking. I told myself it was temper and sheer anger but in the calmer light of day as I write this I am less afraid to admit that yes, there was a little bit of fear in there too.

"No!" he said. "They will deny it and you have no right to search them. "We will have to phone the police."

I watched the two men battle the elements and lock up their van, all the while willing myself to go shove a banana up their exhaust pipe or a nail in their tyres, anything, everything that would prevent their leaving and prompt them into full disclosure and repentance, culminating in them returning our stolen property.

But of course, none of that happened. instead I snatched the money for the table from the man from behind a half-closed door and then slammed it shut in his face, hating myself for being so inadequate.

Then I reached for the phone.

The police, I have to say were very understanding. They were also very quick. Unusually so. I guess that should have started alarm bells ringing in my head...

"We have a rapid response team on the way and there is a helicopter in the area," the 999 controller informed me.

"Oh, um, ok," I responded. "But you will probably not be able to catch them, they left a few minutes ago," I explained.

"Do you know where they were headed caller?" she asked.

"They are on their way back to London," I related what they had told me.

"London, eh?"

Ok so at this point I should have known that things had become more than a little farcical I guess. But you know what? When wrapped up in the situation as it is actually unfolding, you cannot always see the wood for the trees. In my defence, Your Honour!

"So will you let me know what happens?" I asked.

"We have stopped them and are doing a full search on them as we speak," she stated triumphantly.

Now whilst we had been on the phone I had heard several police sirens but could not bring myself to believe it was in response to my call. But yes, it appeared that indeed it had!

Then the police controller said something which made it all fall into place. "We were in your area anyway as there have been a number of thefts within the past twelve hours, many involving satnavs and we think it is a gang targeting your area. With your help we might just have caught them. Hang up now caller as a constable is on his way to your house with more information."

I thanked her and duly hung up.

No more than ten minutes later, two very soaked PCs arrived at my house with a satnav.

"Is this it?" they asked brandishing the said article in my face.

"No," I stuttered dejectedly. "Did you find any others?"

"Well here's the thing..." he said slowly, strangely using that same tone of voice my friend had used on me earlier, the one that made me feel about knee high to a grasshopper and only half as intelligent.

"We searched the men extensively. We made them empty everything out of their van." He didn't say 'in the torrential rain and hail' but I felt the words anyway. "We made them unlock every box and empty out every holdall and bag in the van..." And oh dear God the feeling in my stomach was telling my head and heart things it did not want to know.

"We looked everywhere and there were none of the stolen goods from any of the houses." He looked me in the eye and we both knew he knew I was an idiot. "Is it possible that the theft had occurred before these men arrived and that their arrival was just a coincidence?"

It was of course the only logical answer and I was doubly humiliated. Not only had I caused innocent men to be pulled over and virtually strip searched but I had not even been aware of the burglary in the very first place!

I bowed my head in shame and felt the weight of life upon my shoulders as the policemen trudged away, back to the innocent men who waited still bent over their van in the rain and hail, searched and grappled with to within an inch of their lives. Treated like ghetto drug dealers - because of me!

So now every time I  go to my Ebay account and view the feedback, I cringe. Nothing has been posted there - yet - but I imagine it nonetheless. It will read something like this:-

"Avoid like the plague. This woman will lure you to her home with promises of Ebay bargains but whilst you are there she will waste your time, snatch your money from your hand and then have you strip searched by the police on departure. AVIOD AT ALL COSTS!!!"

So dear readers, this blog post is my way of an open apology to those poor innocent men.

Now can I interest anyone in an only slightly used dishwasher?

Anyone?

[N.B. The above is a true story - unfortunately for all participants.]

Hi folks, things are too frantic to write a post right now so I'll leave you with this teaser...I have a really funny but true-life story to tell you when Christmas is over.

Until then Merry Christmas and Happy New Year !

And of course - Happy Reading as ever.

Carmen.

And you think my name is weird?

Take a look here - some of these are so funny I actually howled with laughter!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7909561.stm

In particular I LOVED Anna Sasin.

Merry Christmas all! x