Welcome to my blog interview.

I am pleased to introduce the amazing Jim Webster

Hello Jim. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Well, I’m getting to the stage where calling myself fifty something is stretching the truth a little, I’m married with three daughters, have no real dress sense, or so I am informed. I farm, am a freelance journalist, writer and whatever.

I’ve been a reader of SF and Fantasy since the 1970s and early on discovered the writing of Jack Vance, and he taught me that if they aren’t the same genre, there’s a very broad fuzzy borderline between them.

I’ve written six novels, four fantasy and two SF, and I’m currently publishing a collection of novellas covering the antics of one of the fantasy characters I created.

I live in South Cumbria, England, and frankly why would anybody live anywhere else? Between the hills and the sea, with the best of both.

What bought you to the world of writing?

Frankly, and unromantically, it was the need to eat regular meals. If you’re trying to support a family on a small farm, you have to have as second income. So I drifted into freelance journalism. People kept saying I should write something more ‘permanent’ and when I got a chance I wrote ‘Swords for a Dead Lady’. Once you start writing, stopping is the difficult bit.

What is your first book and what do you think of it now?

My first book was ‘Swords for a Dead Lady.’ I confess that I’m still proud of it, still think it’s a cracking good tale, and it’s still my baby. I took the hero from that and am continuing his adventures in the novellas.

What type of books do you write and do they fulfil your reader’s needs?

I write Fantasy and SF. I’m not precious, I hope I present the reader with a good story, well told, that enables them to escape for a while. Reading a good Fantasy of SF book should be almost like taking a holiday, without all the faff of packing or dealing with airlines.

Would you like to feature a book, if so which one?  Tell us about it?

I’ll mention the latest, ‘Woman in Love.’ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Woman-Love-Port-Naain-Intelligence-ebook/dp/B01H04MHK4

It’s a novella, about 20,000 words and it’s one of a collection. What I did was write, edit and set up for publishing six of them. You can read them in any order, (a bit like the Sherlock Holmes stories.)

They follow the exploits of my favourite hero, Benor, who is living in the city of Port Naain. Each story is self-contained with a mystery or crime to be solved.

In the current one, to quote the blurb, “Asked to look for a missing husband, Benor finds that the female of the species is indeed more deadly than the male.”

How long does it take you to write your first draft?

Depends of how long I’ve got and what else I have to do. I have written 75,000 words in a month. But other books have taken longer because life gets in the way.

Do you plot or not, if so why?

Yes, but on the hoof. I have a basic outline in my head. But the detail, the twists and the turns, I work out as I’m going along. I’ll take a walk and whilst walking I’ll ponder an episode, work out motivations and suchlike. So during writing the plot can twist and turn no end.

Do you write in 1^st or 3^rd person, or have you do both?

Normally 3^rd person. I’ve done stuff in the first person but never a book

How do you edit your work?  Do you leave your draft alone for a while or edit as you write?

I edit as I write. I’ll often start work by reading yesterday’s work and correcting it. I’ll also go back and change bits so they fit with what is now happening.

But when I’ve ‘finished’ I’ll put the book down for three to six months and then come back to it to edit it. Then it goes to my professional editor

What type of people/readers do you market your books to?

Persons of infinite good taste, wit and perspicacity. Anybody found reading one of my books immediately becomes not merely more attractive, but it improves their credit score.

On a more prosaic level, I think that the majority of my readers, or those who get in touch with me, are ladies of mature taste. 

Do you self-publish or have you worked with an Agent/Publisher

Both; I’ve dealt with small publishers and feel that for them the business model is broken. They depend for their survival on one of their authors breaking into the big time, and effectively helping to fund everybody else. But when an author breaks through into the big time, they allow themselves to be lured away to join the stable of one of the bigger companies.

How do you promote your writing? 

Badly. I only remembered I had to promote this book a fortnight before it was launched.

I tend to do blog tours and mention it casually on Facebook.

Where can we buy your books?

The ebooks are available on pretty much every format. The paperbacks are available through bookstores but you’ll have to order. The best way to get the paperbacks is through Amazon, for example https://www.amazon.co.uk/Learning-Hard-Trade-Jim-Webster/dp/1785382233/

Who are your favourite authors?

Jack Vance undoubtedly. Cordwainer Smith, but of modern writers I’d mention Will Macmillian-Jones, (I love his Banned Underground series,) and M.T.McGuire

What other hobbies do you have?

Military history, wargaming, walking

A short piece from the story.

Tallis said thoughtfully, “Bald as an egg? There used to be a fashion amongst young men about town for shaving your head entirely. About ten years back. Some people got their heads tattooed as well but I thought it had faded away.” He smiled and then declaimed quietly;

“As bald as an egg

Was Philinious Begg

Both his suit and his mistress were brash

Some would not quail

To tell you his tale

But I’m a poet, not a sweeper of trash.”

Benor stood up, “A friend of yours?”

“Briefly.”

Benor was intrigued, “A fellow artist then?”

Tallis shook his head. “Alas no, he was a librettist, a composer of romantic ballads whose words are sung by drunken stevedores to their lady loves. Purveyors of sheet music fawn upon him and compete to shower him with gold.”

Benor nodded, he was beginning to understand the ways of the literary fraternity.

Links.

One of my characters, Tallis Steelyard, keeps a blog.

https://wordpress.com/stats/day/tallissteelyard.wordpress.com

I also have one, but I make a point of not doing author stuff on it J

https://wordpress.com/stats/day/jandbvwebster.wordpress.com

My ‘Land of the three seas’ has a Facebook page where I tend to put stuff

https://www.facebook.com/Land-of-the-Three-Seas-426394067386022/

And of course I’ve got an Amazon author page

http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B009UT450I/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?

Taster for Book number four in the Raumsey series.

Well folks, life has been getting in the way of my writing life recently but I am offering you the chance to see where I am going with number four. This novel follows the life of Isa's daughter, Annie.

Chapter One

'You can't get married to the minister.' Annie Reid faced her mother.

Isa wiped her hands on her apron. 'Why not?’

‘How could you put another man in Dad’s place?’

‘I’ll never forget your father, but he’s gone. I’ve been lonely, and we're both free. In any case, it’s hard enough for Bel to feed herself, let alone us as well.’

'So we’re leaving? Dad might have been the heir to Scartongarth. Why should Bel have it?' Annie set her hand against the lime-washed wall which held the faded framed photograph of her grandparents on their wedding day.

Isa gave a pained sigh. ‘Look, Annie, there was no will. By rights it should have been Jimmy’s, but he doesn’t want it, Bel does.’

‘But you said Dad…’

Isa held up her hand. ‘I said it was a possibility only. I didn’t know then how Bel felt about the place, and I won’t fight her for it. She's worked hard to keep it going with the war and all.'

‘Then why did we come back? Was it for him, the Reverend Charleston?’

‘Of course not. There was nothing left for us in Canada. You know that.’

The arguments died on Annie’s lips. She, too, had been captivated by Bel’s gentle charm and had no real desire to take the croft from her. She changed the subject. 'So we'll be moving into the manse?’

Isa sighed. ‘It’s a fine big house and Donald has his stipend. We’ll be comfortable.’

‘Is that why you’re getting wed? So we won’t starve?’

‘No. I like Donald a lot and he’s a good man. You’ll be welcome until you decide your future. You’re clever, Annie, you could go back to school, maybe get a job in an office.'

Annie’s interest peaked. Maybe her mother marrying the minister wasn’t such a bad idea. ‘Would he pay for college?'

‘You’re my daughter. I wouldn’t expect him to do that  even if he could afford it.’

Disappointed, Annie gazed at the floor where the flagstones shone with Isa's regular polishing.

'Maybe, maybe if you had a word with Mr Dick...' said Isa.

‘Mr Dick? The schoolteacher?'

‘He could give you some learning at nights. I could do a bit of washing, a bit of cleaning for him. If you want an education, we'll find a way to make it happen.'

This was so like her mother, pushing her to better herself when there was little chance of it becoming a possibility. Yet Isa’s enthusiasm was catching, her philosophy in life had always been, ‘there’s no such word as can’t.’

‘Then I don’t want to live with you and the minister,’ Annie muttered.

‘Bel would never turn you out, but see how you get on with Mr Dick. Right now, I need you to go to the shop for me.’

Annie snorted. ‘I’d best go and get my coat, then,’ she said, edging around the table in the middle of the floor. To go anywhere in this room she had to move sideways. Against one wall sat a pinewood dresser which held the crockery, in another was a bed in the recess with a door on either side, one leading to the passageway, the other to a steep staircase. On the third wall was the window, a dresser in front of it, and on the fourth was an iron stove with a mantelpiece and a rod for drying clothes. It was all so different from the roomy space where they had lived in Canada until a few weeks ago.

Annie climbed up to her room beneath the rafters, sat down on her makeshift bed with the large sack of chaff for a mattress that Bel called a chaff seck, and put her head in her hands. In spite of her words, she liked Donald Charleston, and he would be good to her mother. She had seen how quickly the strands of white had streaked Isa's coal-black hair after the Great War took her father. Over the years, she’d watched her mother struggle against poverty and she, Annie Reid, fuelled by her mother’s never-ending optimism, hungered for more. She had thought something better would be waiting for them in the place her parents referred to as ‘home,’ but the war had devastated Britain, and nowhere more than the islands. Without an education, the only life for a woman was gutting the fish, going into service or hopefully marrying a good man.

From beneath her pillow she pulled out the magazines she bought to pass the long hours on the journey to Scotland. In the meagre slice of day entering through the skylight she studied the photos of grand ladies, of fine carriages and city streets. ‘One day,’ she said, in a determined voice.

Annie knew she was beautiful. Even if the pock-marked mirror on the passage wall hadn't told her, the way men's eyes followed her, did. No, she was not going to settle for becoming a mere crofter-fisherman's wife or a skivvy for some rich family.

She didn't want lessons from Mr Dick with his big belly and bulbous nose and the veins that stood out on the backs of his hands like fat worms. But it seemed if she wanted to get anywhere in life she would have to do as her mother asked.

‘Where are you, girl?’ Her mother’s voice came from downstairs.

‘Coming, Ma.’ Annie stood up and lifted the coat which doubled as an extra blanket. She was taller than the average woman, and could only stand upright where the beams met in the middle to form the roof.

Downstairs her eyes fell on the big pot on the range. Her stomach clawed for a good feed. She lifted the lid. ‘Is there anything to eat other than porridge?’ She had never been fond of the grey gooey sludge, and since it had become their staple diet, she detested it.

‘There’s a crust of bread in the larder and some cheese.’ Isa went to the jar on the mantel and took out a ha’penny piece. ‘See if Lottie’s’s got any flour, I need to do a baking.’

Once outside a sharp breeze blew in from the Pentland Firth and lifted the hem of Annie’s skirt and the strands of her thick black locks. She never pleated her hair or tied it in a knot the way the local women did.

Sucking in the sea-salt air, she looked around. It would take time to get used to the flat expanse of Raumsey with its one-storied, stone-built cottages and miles of grey ocean beyond, or a sky that seldom, it seemed, was free of clouds.

Sloping down from the shingle path and behind the hummocks of waving grass, the pebbles on the beach rattled as angry breakers smashed over them. For seventeen years she had grown up in the prairies of Alberta and had never seen the ocean. Now she embraced its wildness. It was the one thing that fascinated her about this island. If only her dad were with them now, he would have built a boat for the fishing and turned Scartongarth back into the success it once was. Her brother, Dan, who had remained in Canada, would come and help them run it, and she would go to university and her mam would not be marrying the minister.

Todays Blog

Welcome to my blog interview.

Today I am pleased to introduce the talented Toni Bunnell.

Hello Toni. Tell us a bit about yourself.

I started writing stories and songs at the age of ten. As a singer-songwriter I have performed on the UK folk scene since I was seventeen and continue to do so. As a wildlife biologist, with a PhD in polecat behaviour, I care for rescue ferrets and have run York Hedgehog Rescue Centre for the past 26 years. My favourite past-time is playing my fiddle in Irish music sessions.

What bought you to the world of writing?

Four years ago I lost a very close friend. In my attempt to make sense of this I started writing poems. I compiled these into a book that I am about to publish. Having started writing I found I enjoyed it so much I couldn’t stop. Hence began a new stage in my life.

What is your first book and what do you think of it now?

The Room Between the Floorboards was my first work of fiction. It is a tale of the supernatural and time travel, and I still enjoy reading it.

What type of books do you write and do they fulfil your reader’s needs?

I write books that cover a rather diverse range. My first non-fiction book was about music therapy and people with learning difficulties, while the second looks at how to help reverse the trend of declining hedgehog numbers in the UK. Both these books have sold well and, if the reviews are anything to go by, have been well received. The fiction I write leans heavily on the supernatural. 

Would you like to feature a book, if so which one? 

My latest book: The Nameless Children, Part 1 of The Soil Chronicles.

Tell us about it.

This is a gothic, supernatural novel, best summed up as follows:

In the beginning there was soil. In 2015, four teenagers emerged from the grave where they had been buried in the 1800s, without ceremony and without a name. They were the nameless children. They were driven by a desire to wreak revenge on those who committed them to the ground. But these people are long gone from this world. Through fair means and foul the children attempt to track down the living descendants of those responsible.

How long does it take you to write your first draft?

Normally about three months.

Do you plot or not, if so why?

I never plot a storyline. An idea comes to me and I just run with it. I do, however, keep a close watch on what is happening to the different characters, so that the story has a thread running through it, and a measure of consistency. 

Do you write in 1^st or 3^rd person, or do you do both?

Both.

How do you edit your work?  Do you leave your draft alone for a while or edit as you write?

Every day, before I start to write, I edit what I have written the day before. I type up the book as I go along. As I write in longhand this can take some time. I then start to edit the whole book. My good friend Carol Arnall, my husband Paul, and others from the writing group I belong to, read my books and give me invaluable advice.

What type of people/readers do you market your books to?

Everyone and anyone.

Do you self-publish or have you worked with an Agent/Publisher

My first non-fiction book, Music makes a difference, was picked up by a publisher who had seen my self-published version and offered to publish it. All my other books have been self-published and most released as ebooks.

How do you promote your writing? 

Through my website, Twitter, Amazon, and occasionally Facebook.

Where can we buy your books?

All my books are available from my website and some from Amazon.

Who are your favourite authors?

Susan Fletcher, Eowyn Ivey, Edith Pattou, 

You are also a musician, I believe. Tell us more about that.

Heavily influenced by Dylan and Donovan I began writing songs and singing when I was in my early teens. I also took up the guitar and later the Appalachian dulcimer. This was followed by the bouzouki and the hurdy gurdy. I’ve recorded several albums over the years and performed at folk clubs and festivals all over the UK and Germany. 

Do you have any more information you’d like to share?

Since my early twenties I have appeared many times on radio, performing my songs live. More recently I have done several radio and television broadcasts, including Love Your Garden, Countryfile and The One Show. This was mostly in connection with my knowledge of wildlife, in particular hedgehogs, but some radio broadcasts have involved interviews where I discussed my books and what inspires me to write. 

Links.

Website

www.tonibunnell.com

Amazon author page book link 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toni-Bunnell/e/B0034Q7JYM

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/toni.bunnell.9

Twitter

https://twitter.com/ToniBunnell1

.