Every Wednesday ALLi will tell the world about our members' latest book launches, news, awards, freebies, workshops and updates on the writing life and take a look at the projects and businesses of our partner members.
ALLi Creative Critique -London
Reminder: the next ALLi Creative Critique is just one week away – put it in your diaries! Members and non-members welcome. Starting at 6.30 pm on Tuesday 17 June, we’ll be upstairs at:
The Star of Kings, King’s Cross, London, 126 York Way, London N1 OAX
Bring along a five-minute piece of writing. It could be a chapter excerpt, character description, poem, plot outline or any other work-in-progress. You read it out and the group offers feedback and advice. It doesn't matter how unfinished or rough your piece is – or how polished!
Read about our last meeting here.
See you on Tuesday!
Joan Fallon Cook
Recently a group of friends, all nurses and midwives from our local hospital, decided to walk the Camino de Santiago in Northern Spain. It reminded me that now is probably the best time to do the pilgrimage, before the Camino gets too hot and too busy. The north of Spain has very unsettled weather: winter is too cold and often very wet and it can be very hot in the summer. Spring and Autumn are good and June is the best of all.
If you've never considered doing it, take a look at my novel Santiago Tales where Beth decides to walk the 500 mile pilgrimage in an attempt to sort out her health and her marriage.
Beth is a woman who takes life on the chin but when she discovers that the cancer has returned she cannot face any more treatment. She decides to keep the news from her husband and her son and get away from it all. All she wants is to be on her own. She embarks on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela not knowing what she will find on the way nor how long it will take her.
By the time she returns home she is no longer afraid and is able to face whatever life has in store for her once more.
Santiago Tales is a novel loosely based on Chaucer's ‘Canterbury Tales'.
Jane Davis
Author Jane Davis is running a special offer on her e-book A Funeral for an Owl which will be available for the week commencing 6th June at a price of 99p/99c.
Twenty years of change, One person who cares.
What kind of a boy would it take to convince two high school teachers to risk their careers?
If you haven't discovered Jane's writing yet, this is an ideal time to do so.
This is what reviewers have said:
‘The dialogue sparkles. This is mature and assured writing.’ Writers’ Workshop
‘Jane Davis is an extraordinary writer, whose deft blend of polished prose and imaginative intelligence makes you feel in the safest of hands. I bought A Funeral for an Owl as a birthday present for my mum. There is no greater compliment.‘ JJ Marsh, Triskele Books/Bookmuse
‘Jane's descriptive power reminds me of being inside a kaleidoscope; colourful, surreal, real, poignant and offering an ever-changing, intense view of what it means to be human.' Jo Chumas, Author
Alan Norris
The third book in the William Blake series, Watched is now available from Amazon as an ebook (B00KS3OSFC) or as a paperback (ISBN 1499798679 ).
It can also be found on the CreateSpace shop list (978-1499798678).
Come and find out what the eyes are staring at – if you dare.
Marie and William return from their Honeymoon adventures to a home in chaos. A stalker is making their lives a misery and destroying everything that they've built together.
Then the stalker becomes a killer!
Roz Morris
Roz Morris's debut novel My Memories of a Future Life is now out on Audible in the US and the UK.
She says: ‘I've been dying to use ACX ever since it was launched in the US and was thrilled to be picked as one of the guinea-pig authors who helped kick it off in the UK. I've wanted to get into the audio market for years but never had the know-how or funds to organise it for myself.
Making the book was great fun – if not a little eerie as it's very strange having your characters come alive in someone else's voice. If you're interested in making an audiobook I've blogged about it on the ALLI site.
And if you try out Audible for the first time as a subscriber, you can get my book free.'
Jim Musgrave
Jim Musgrave's Forevermore – Best in category for Historical Mystery
What if Edgar Allan Poe did not die in Baltimore as a drunk in the gutter? What he were, instead, murdered?
In post Civil War New York City, Detective Pat O'Malley is living inside Poe's Cottage in the Bronx. O'Malley is haunted by Poe one night, and the detective finds a strange note. As a result, O'Malley decides to prove that Edgar Allan Poe did not die in Baltimore from an alcoholic binge but was, instead, murdered. O'Malley quickly becomes embroiled in a “cold case” that thrusts him into the lair of one of the most sinister and ruthless killers in 1865 New York City.
Jim Musgrave's Forevermore is a quick read in four acts that will keep your mind razor sharp trying to solve the mystery of Poe's murder. Pat O'Malley must first find out how to become intimate with females before he can discover the final clue in this puzzle of wits, murder and romance.
Catriona Troth
Booking is NOW OPEN for ALLi and Triskele Books' INDIE AUTHOR FAIR.
The Fair will be held on the afternoon Sunday 16th November and is part of the Chorleywood Literary Festival. Indie authors will be able to sell their books, chat to readers and celebrate all that is best in Indie Publishing.
Those authors with a particular skill or experience to share can also offer ‘Human Library' style one-to-one sessions on specific topics (e.g. design, editing, marketing…)
Authors can reserve their table through Chorleywood Bookshop, on their website, at the bookshop or by phoning (01923 283566).
Tables cost £5 per author. To be Included in The Pre-Event Publicity. You Must Book By 31st July
(*You will find a list of what information we need on the booking page or on the Triskele Books blog)
And don't forget, for those of you who can't be there in person, we want to bring the whole world of Indie Publishing to Chorleywood through your
Indie Author Picks
If you have read any indie published books in the last year that blew you away, we invite you to tell us about your top three, and we will paper the walls with your suggestions.
For more information, please see the Triskele Books Blog. Please send your author information and/or your Indie Picks to [email protected]
Sarah Juckes
ALLi Partner Member, CompletelyNovel has published some price comparison research for print books on their website this week. It shows that authors publishing with their subscription business model can price books more competitively and earn significantly more money than with the ‘commission' models of CreateSpace and Lulu.
Carol Cooper
My novel One Night at the Jacaranda has now got a brilliant new cover, designed by fellow ALLi author Jessica Bell.
It was also one of four finalists in the 2014 Indie Excellence Awards. Now you can see whether you like it too. Until June 28, the Kindle version is on sale at 99p (UK only)
Karen Inglis
In the run-up to the World Cup, children’s author, Karen Inglis, is finding new ways to promote her popular graphic novel for age 7-10, Eeek! The Runaway Alien – about a soccer-mad alien who runs away to Earth from space for the World Cup!
Alongside the current World Countdown she is currently running a Kindle Countdown promotion where she’s dropped the price of the ebook to 99p/99c until 11pm GMT on Saturday 14 June – the exact time that the England v Italy match kicks off! Follow the link above to see the countdown!
Karen has also created a fun free World Cup 2014 crossword puzzle for children to download, and is inviting kids to send in their own clues to help her create the next one. She has also supplied her local bookshops with World Cup themed posters about the book and copies of the puzzle to sit beside the till.
Connie Brentford
ALLi member Connie Brentford was interviewed as part of the Expert Entrepreneurs in Publishing Podcast series by Viv Oyolu.
The podcast interview includes strategies every author can use to engage influencers, readers, book bloggers, editors and agents. Also covered, is the correct way to use themes and settings to market fiction and nonfiction and an effective and efficient twenty-minute daily Twitter strategy for authors. Listen to the podcast here.
Pauline Baird Jones
Pauline Baird Jones is excited to announce the audio release of Family Treed: The Big Uneasy 1.5 and the release of her first novel in over a year.
Core Punch: A Baker & Ban!Drn Adventure is the first book in her new science fiction/mystery mashup, An Uneasy Future.
It is also a spin-off of her two other series, Project Enterprise and The Big Uneasy.
If you are a member of The Alliance of Independent Authors and you would like to showcase your work on our ALLi Showcase, please send it to [email protected] to reach me no later than the Friday proceeding the Wednesday you would like it published.
[…] The wonderful people at The Alliance of Independent Authors have made an an announcement to the world about ‘Watched’ our third book in the William Blake Series. Take a peep: https://selfpublishingadvice.org/alliance-of-independent-authors-members-showcase-bulletin-70/ […]