How to book.

Tomorrow I am giving another author talk. It's a private event, so you won't find details of it listed on my EVENTS page, which is only for ones open to the general public.

If you would like to book me for a talk, you can contact me at carmen.capuano@ymail.com.

Until then, take a browse through these pages.

Happy Reading.

Firstly, can I please thank the wonderful audience who attended my most recent talk, last week. Not only was I told that my books are captivating and that my writing is beautiful, but I was also given cake afterwards. [I love this job!]

Today I am writing, so here is a little bit of a chapter from the book I'm currently working on, set in a dystopian world where things are beginning to fall apart...

“Where is he?" I am panicked and I expect her to try to calm me down. She doesn’t.

“There were complications,” she says distractedly. She moves as if to walk past me but I grab her arm, harnessing her in place. Her face is so close that I can feel her breath against my skin but only for a second, before she turns away.

“What do you mean complications?” I manage to spit the entire sentence out, even though the words threaten to choke me. Bile coats the inside of my mouth and I can’t seem to entirely swallow it back down. I am more afraid than I have ever been before.

Happy Reading!

Sorry guys!

I have had a couple of complaints about my book Split Decision. It seems that you ladies are enjoying the book so much, you are going to bed early... to READ.

And guess where the complaints have come from? Yup, your men folk. Now whilst I am delighted that you are all so engrossed, I have to say ladies what are you thinking of? Rather than have your man nag you at bed time, give in and give him a little of what he will love... buy him a copy of The Owners series!

Joking aside, these have been genuine complaints made to me and I make no apologies for writing such compelling reading.

So for your copy of The Owners and Split Decision, follow the links on the right of this page or read the reviews on the Reviews page.

Happy reading. X

P.S. New books coming soon...

Update

To answer all your questions, yes The Owners Volumes V, VI and VII are written. I have been holding them back for a little while. I'm sorry that this has made some of you fret that they are not coming. Trust me, they are!

I have just been so busy with Split Decision and then writing another few books [and of course moving home] that I haven't had a chance to do anything about The Owners. That's about to change.

Here's where I was at in 2013:-

The Owners Volume V

As I am almost finished editing the Owners Volume IV, I am aware that my thoughts are shifting towards Volume V.

Changes are afoot - they ar...e the noises carried by the wind, the strange and unusual scents pervading the air everywhere I go and the sights which fill my inner vision with wonder and excitement.

I can't wait to introduce you all to the characters, some known and familiar, others new and unknown...who are waiting to fill your minds and hearts with their stories.
Come on a voyage of discovery with me - I promise you will never look at things in quite the same way, ever again.

The Owners Volume IV : A New Epoch.

Happy reading! x

A snippet

Exciting news coming soon... [sorry, I know you all hate it when I do this :) but hey I'm a suspense author, what do you expect???]

In the meantime would you like a little sneak peek at the book I am currently writing?

Here it is:-

I have never seen him without his clothes before. Naked, his body is lean and muscular with a pure beauty that takes my breath away once more. My eyes roam over him and I know beyond any shadow of doubt that he can be the only man for me. The only love I will ever have in my life.

I feel my cheeks redden at my forwardness but I do not shy away from the picture he presents. He strides towards me and I am simultaneously eager and afraid of his embrace.

If he feels the coldness of the water, he gives no indication. But he stops short before he reaches me. I want to speak, want him to speak and yet I don’t want the beauty of the moment shattered. Don’t want either of us to say or do something that will mar the perfection of this time and place.

And then suddenly I am soaked as he brings his hands up and throws a cascading fountain of water at me. Streams of water run down my hair and over my face as I throw back my head and laugh. Far from ruining the moment, he has taken the edge from it and kept it safe, kept me safe.

Despite the part you have read this isn't that sort of book, but the characters  are in love. I hope you enjoyed it.

Happy reading, x

New book

It seems that spring has finally sprung. I know that by the sheer volume of weeds which are trying to defeat my plans in my new garden. I know it too by the lyrical birdsong that greets me every morning when I first open my door...

What I do not know it from, is the frozen, dystopian vision that is currently filling the space behind my eyes and causing my heart to flutter erratically.

My head is filled with the characters and unique world of my newest book. And I am consciously worried about them. Unlike Jessica Stone from Ascension, these characters are naïve, unworldly, totally unaware of what they are about to be up against... Like you, I have no idea how or even if they will survive their challenges.

But there is one thing I do know - that I will be there with them, every step of the way.

Happy reading! x 

HELP!

Please vote for me now! I'll reward you with a snippet.

https://www.vmbvoom.com/pitches/carmen-capuano

THANKS! x

A new story coming your way

Today I wrote the first two chapters of my newest book. This story wants to pour out of me.

Unlike most of my other books, the main character is in love and to some extent it is this love which drives the story. But my, is she in for a shock!

Dark, dystopian and fast-paced, this is a book which will keep you on the edge of your seat, right where Split Decision left you and where Ascension is about to find you...

Take my advice, before you start reading one of my books, surround yourself with food, drinks and everything you might need. Because once you start to read, I promise you won't put that book back down!

Happy reading. x

New story

There's a new story brewing in my head. I went to sleep thinking about these characters and their situation and woke up still thinking about them.

This tale is set to be a dystopian sci-fi romance and adventure with elements of thriller. I think. You see that's the thing about how I write, I let the characters and the plot unfurl themselves so that they can become the very fullest, most entertaining they can be. It makes for exciting reading and funnily enough it also makes for fun writing times.

So until I have time to get started on this book, [next couple of weeks hopefully] they will remain in my head, nagging me...

For now, its back to the editing of one of the other books! In the meantime, please take a look at my reviews, which you will find on a separate page to your right on this blog.

Happy Reading! x

A new review!

Here is a review which has just been sent to me. It is from a Year 8 school teacher who read one of my books.

"The Owners, Volume I is a page turner of a read. The structure of the novel being a double narrative perspective leap-frogging chapter by chapter, really hooks the reader.

I thought it was beautifully written with wonderful use of imagery. For example, 'The drone of an insect outside served to shatter the silence, its drum a seeming answer to the staccato drumbeat of his heart'.  The musical term 'staccato' conveyed to the reader how fast the boy's heart was throbbing with fright.

This is a novel ideal for the young adult readership, as there were elements of peril interspersed with loving relationships and concepts of what makes us human. I thought there were many thought provoking elements such as making us think about our own relationships with our own pets. There is also the added feature of the mystery about the Eyons, who are they? Who controls them? And why? These questions leave the reader wanting to read the second volume, which is an excellent hook into the forthcoming series.

Overall, I would thoroughly recommend the book to my students, although there were a few 'typos' which need to be edited out. Having said that, I was so engrossed with the plot and turn of phrase that the 'typos' did not get in the way."

Mrs Sterenberg. Aston Fields Middle School.

So folks there you have it... if you haven't yet read it, you really should. :)

In answer to your question

The following question was posted on this blog with regard to The Boy who Rescues Pigeons:-

Hi

Any idea when we can expect the culmination and the release of this book? Just a few extracts have me keen to read more!


Well Reader that is something I hope to be able to give an answer to very soon. The Boy who Rescues Pigeons is currently out with publishers. I'm afraid I can't tell you any more than that right now. Keep your fingers crossed for me please!

Happy Reading!

Back by Popular Demand : Too Much far Too Soon

I am reposting this post below which I wrote a few years ago. This is done by popular demand. Mothers, vote with your feet and your purse strings...

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.

Now 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-deprication 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.

And 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!

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.

If you touch me like this and kiss me like that...

I am editing Ascension.

Here's the bit I am currently on... I remember these feelings so well. I hope you all get to experience them at least once in your lifetime.

“Sorry, that was uncalled for,” she apologizes. “It’s just that... you have to experience it to understand.” She wraps both hands around the hot mug, even though there’s no chill in the kitchen. “Being in love is such a strange and unique experience. You feel like you are on stage every time he is near, as if a hundred pairs of eyes regard your every move, when in fact it is only him. Your mouth feels suddenly dry, yet you are forced to swallow several times before you can even speak. And the slightest brush of his skin against yours, causes your heart to lurch so much, it almost makes you dizzy!”

Happy Reading! x

Here I lay me down...

How often in your life do you get trends? You know the sort of thing... you haven't been invited to a wedding in years then suddenly three invitations come at once? Or every tombola at the school fayre ends in a number other than five or zero normally but one time, just once, you go and virtually clear every prize from the table?

Well this is what's happening to me right now. Not the prize thing, but a series of random yet interlinked events. One of these things is the sheer volume of friend requests and messages I have had on Facebook from people who were, quite probably, instrumental in shaping me into the person I have become today. These are people whom in some cases I haven't seen or heard from in over thirty years [dear God that makes me sound ancient] and some were in my life when I was a mere five years old and not since.

It's a strange scenario indeed. These are the people who played a massive role in my life back then and yet have been out of it for far longer than they were in it. I could paraphrase Shakespeare here but I'm not going to. This isn't just about mortality, theirs or mine, but about grounding. About not forgetting where your roots lie and why.

Am I the same girl that I was back then? Undoubtedly life has changed me physically. But spiritually? Emotionally? Morally? I am older but am I wiser?

Ask any of my current friends and they will tell you I am as foolish and as controlled by my heart as I ever was. And yet, there must have been changes too. Perhaps I am more cynical, less trusting than before.

This year I will turn 50. In an era that seeks to celebrate this milestone, I feel more inclined to take the stance of an indigenous American Indian. There is a feeling in my soul that my time is over, that I should perhaps take myself off to the hills, there to lie down in a thicket and await death, for I am clearly too old to be of use to anyone.

I accept that this is an extreme feeling and that perhaps many of you will not be able to identify with it. And in all honestly neither could I until now. But the more 50 looms, the more I fret. That said, I'm sure that once I reach that age, I'll get over this fugue, this feeling that I'm on the downward slope...

But do me a favour? If you have a friend who is coming up to their 50th, please, please, please don't keep telling them how many years you have until you get to that decrepit age. It really doesn't help. :)

Happy Reading. x



     

Roll up! ROLL UP!

Yesterday I had a very strange day which came to a close with me going to the Charles Chipperfield Circus. It's a thing I have never experienced before and I was rather excited. So did the experience match up to my expectations?

There were the obligatory [I believe] juggling acts and trapeze artists... and much more showmanship than I had expected somehow. Glittering costumes and snazzy, choreographed little snippets of dance, set the whole thing off nicely, and yet the crowd around me seemed a little less than rapturous with their applause.

Suddenly I realised something. Probably not one of us in the audience, myself included, could have performed any of those acts with even the tiniest shred of competence and yet we were not astounded, thrilled and amazed as we should have been. Why? Because TV has jaded us. Clever camera angles, close-ups and edited footage ensure that on TV shows, we see only the best bits, that the magician's slight-of-hand thoroughly fools us, or that when the man juggling nine balls drops one, it's carefully cut out of the final show.

But last night we saw it all, and I have to say that it was the occasional mistake that truly made it for me. It was this which made me realise how difficult these acts were to actually perform, how much practise and showmanship went into everything and how strong and professional the performers were.

And then came the finale: a man running outside of a giant hamster-type wheel which was catapulted to the ceiling of the big top and then to the ground again, whilst he ran the gauntlet, trying to keep pace and balance as the wheel was constantly turned out from under his feet.

Several times he almost fell, stumbled then regained his footing only to stumble once more, making me raise both hands to my mouth in fear for his safety. So when he opted next to do it blindfolded I was actually saying aloud, "Don't do it! Don't do it!" in a kind of mantra.

But he did, and he stumbled and lost his balance and fell... just managing to wrap an arm around a piece of equipment on his way down and swing himself safely back inside the ball in the nick of time. My heart was racing and adrenaline was pumping. It was terrifying!

So overall what do I think? Well TV you can keep your phoney edited stuff for yourself... I like the real thing so much better.

Happy Reading! x

Do I or don't I?

Today I was faced with a moral dilemma. I can't tell you the specifics but suffice it to say that I was effectively damned if I did and equally damned if I didn't.

You may wonder why I am even telling you this if I can't give you the details but it wasn't ever really about that, it was about doing what I had to do. This weird conundrum came at a very strange point in my day - I had been editing my newest book, Invisible, and was pondering why the character had chosen to act as she had, because in fact there was no good way out of her situation, when indeed I found myself in a similar position.

In the book, she did what seemed right to her and in real life I did what seemed right to me. Were either of those things actually the right thing to do? I don't know. But I believe they were the most moral choices they could be.

So back to why I am telling you this. The simple truth is that like everyone else on this rolling planet, I haven't got a clue what it is I am supposed to be doing here, so I am just doing the best I can.

Is that good enough?
I hope so.

Happy Reading!

Still editing!

I am still editing Invisible.

Here is the part I am currently on:-

In the hallway, the front door opened and then after a moment, closed again. Fran and Gary sat without speaking as if the moment was so sacred it required the silence of the sacristy. It took another few minutes for Alison to reappear and when she did, her eyes were red and puffy. “He’s gone,” she said, her voice breaking on the very first syllable.

 

How strange that it is me, comforting her, Fran thought as she rose from the chair with her arms wide, wrapping them tight around Jim’s twin. “At least his suffering is over,” she told herself and Ally. Whereas mine has only just begun. As painful and terrible as before, his death hasn’t brought an end to my anguish, just pushed it in a different direction, she realised.

Poor Fran... Happy Reading!

Life versus Fiction

At the moment I am editing the book about the woman whose life falls apart when she hears some revelations. It was a hard book to write and it's equally hard to edit. The emotions which pour forth from the pages are raw and gripping. And each turn of the page takes me back to my past. For after all, who of us hasn't stood chalk faced and shaking when we are told about something so fundamentally wrong in our relationship that it rocks us to the core?

The other day I became embroiled in such a situation. For the sake of those similarly enmeshed, I shall keep the identities private, as indeed the minute details of the situation... but to see such a thing first-hand and in real life was heart-breaking. Trying to mediate as I was and failing dismally, it was all I could do in the end to offer support and a shoulder to cry on.

But it made me think. My own life [until this very moment in time] has been filled with emotional drama, heights of delirium and depths of despair that I guess in one shape or form, I must have invited in. Had my friend also invited it into her life? As an outsider in the private inner realms of her world, I could only surmise that it was a possibility that she had. We lead the lives we do because of the choices we make within them. That, after all, was how I came to write Split Decision, about the consequences of a choice.

My friend has recovered but will she ever be exactly the same person that she was before she found out the horrible truth? Probably not. Because I think that day, a little piece of her died. And I know exactly how that feels.

And me? Well as ever I will channel that raw emotion into my books as I always do. You see when people ask me if I write fiction, I nod. But I know it isn't really fiction - it is a written depiction of life, a tome which has recorded the vagaries of life, love and of humans themselves.

Am I a writer? Yes. Am I an imaginer of things? Perhaps. But mostly what I am is a chronicler. Like it or not, that's what I really am.

Happy Reading.

I write like...

During Monday's talk, I mentioned a programme which uses some sort of algorithm to decide which famous writer or writers you write like.

If you scroll down this blog and click on the tag which states 'analysis' you can read the excerpts I used and what the outcomes were, but should you wish to take the text yourself, then here is the link.

 http://iwl.me/

Thank you!

Yesterday I did a talk for Olton Creative Writers at Olton Library. What a wonderfully well-read and creative group of people!

Often those who have an interest in the arts can be a little imperious [stating the phrase with implied inverted commas and capital letters, or fingers held aloft in the air], so it was refreshing to meet such talented and down-to-earth people.

I hope they thoroughly enjoy my books.