Bettina von Cossel - Abseiling for Literature!

How long have you been a Greenacre Writer?

I joined Greenacre Writers' 'Finish That Novel' group in August 2010 and never looked back. Usually I write in German, but the group gave me the confidence to write my first English novel which is currently in the publisher's slush pile, waiting to be discovered.

As well as a crime writing talk, what else are you doing for the 3rd ever Finchley Literary Festival?

I'll be doing something really scary in aid of this year's Finchley Literary Festival: a sponsored abseiling down Church Langley Water Tower, Harlow. That's the imposing water tower next to the M11 on the way towards Stansted Airport. I'm sure you've noticed it driving along the motorway because it's just HUGE!  I'm not really looking forward to my big day on May 4 because I've never abseiled before and I have this thing about heights. 

On the other hand, who would sponsor you if your task was easy?

Have you ever done anything like this before?

No, I never abseiled before but in aid of HAB (Homeless Action in Barnet) I spent a cold and spooky November night in the cemetery of St Mary's East Barnet, with a black bin bag shielding my borrowed sleeping bag from the wetness seeping up from the ground. Needless to say, I'm the only person in my family who peacefully rested on a graveyard and came back.

What has motivated you to do it?

A literary festival can't live from words alone. Helpers are needed, volunteers, organisers, professionals, goodwill, donations, you name it... My sponsored abseiling is just a small part but I hope the money raised will help the Finchley Literary Festival in any possible way.

How important do you think Literary Festivals are?

Nothing beats a literary festival. Not only do they bring literature into town but there are also workshops about writing, how to find a publisher, or how to make yourself known as an author. Visitors can mingle in a like-minded crowd and rub shoulders with authors, poets, and screen writers alike. Who knows? After all these helpful workshops, next year they might be the ones giving the autographs...

How can people sponsor you?

I'd be more than grateful for your help, and any amount will be much appreciated!  

You can donate via paypal and email the following details to greenacrewriters@gmail.com:

Full name,

Gift aid (yes / no)

Address

Amount Sponsored

Alternatively just contact Greenacre Writers and let them know that you'd like to sponsor me: greenacrewriters@gmail.com - Thank you so much!

Bettina von Cossel will be giving the following talk at The Finchley Literary Festival:

Crime Writing - How to Kill your Darlings?

Tuesday 27th May

3pm

Church End Library, N3 1TR 

Free of charge. 

Find out more. 

10 Tips for Blogging - by Emily Benet

I'm a big fan of blogging. With a blog you can build your own readership, establish yourself within the online writing community and increase your chances of publication. Publishers take notice of proactive writers because  writers who already have a following pose less risk! 

 If I hadn't begun my weekly blog about working in my Mum's shop, my book, Shop Girl Diaries, would never have been commissioned. Since then, my blog has continued to open doors.   

Of course,  the surest way to getting published is to write a masterpiece, but while you're working on that, why not dedicate an hour a week to building up that following? Here are 10 tips to start you off!

1. Decide on a clear concept for your blog -  just because you're a writer doesn't mean you have to write about writing!

2. Write what you want not what you should - what excites you? what are your passions? If you blog about what you should instead of what you want, you'll soon run out steam.

3. Consider how your blog might add value to your readers - is it entertaining? informative? insightful?

4.  Be consistent - both in your theme and your voice!

5. Post regularly - once a week is great, once every two weeks might be more manageable.

6. Keep an eye on blogs you like - what do you like about them? what are they doing so well?

7. Visual appeal - use multimedia, add relevant photographs, illustrations, videos.   

8. Integrate your online presence -  make sure your blog link is on all your social networks and your social networks can be reached through your blog.

9. Spread the word - add your blog link to your email signature, mention new posts in your facebook status, tweet your posts using bite sized headlines and don't forgot word of mouth.

10. Don't spam - tell people about your blog but don't use social media solely for self-promotion. It won't work and you'll get on everyone's nerves. Engage, engage, engage!

My next workshop is at the Finchley Literary Festival:

Develop your Online Author Profile: 

A Blog & Twitter Workshop

When: Saturday 31st May  

Time:   10.30am -12.30pm

Tickets: £15.00

My Blogging for Beginners ebook is available to download from Amazon. 

The Importance of Creative Play in Writing - Greenacre Guest Blog

Guest Blog from A.L. Michael

I’ve been running writing workshops for children for quite a few years now, and what I’ve realised from seeing them interact with the props, play the games, create superheroes and  monsters, is that we have forgotten how to play.

Adults need creative play just as much as children do, but we tend to settle for passive imagination, watching movies, reading books. Being shown something, instead of creating it ourselves. Children become their stories, they act them out, change the rules, get excited. Writing is our chance to do that, to recreate and remember how to play.

It doesn’t mean you have to suddenly write a science fiction story if that’s not what you’re about, but consider how you like to make up stories. Perhaps there are things in your life you’d rewrite? Perhaps those daydreams of what you’d do if you won the lottery could be the start of an epic tale of luxury and drama? What superpower would you have if you could choose?

Stories originate in daydreams, in fantasy, and as adults we have shunned those fantasies for the real world, convinced they have no value, but they do! Children know this, they know that their fantasies can provide hours of fun, that they can draw other people into their worlds with the stories they create.

Take a moment to learn from your children, and whenever you get the chance to play, to be creative and silly and surprising, do so!

For more info on the importance of creative play, writing and wellbeing, click HERE. 

  

A.L. Michael will be running a Creative Writing for Children Workshop as part of TheFinchley Literary Festival, at Friern Barnet Community Library.

Wednesday 28th May
'Write Here, Write Now'

Creative Writing Lesson for Kids

10.30am-11.15pm

11.30am-12.15pm

Create some stories this half term with writer A.L.Michael! Come along and race against time to create a story with The Sixty Second Scribble. Create the scariest villain or most brilliant superhero with The Prop Detective! Then roll The Story Dice to find your setting and get ready to write! Two 45 min sessions of writing games and activities to get young minds imagining! 

Ages 6+ No need to book, just drop in!

(Limit of 20 kids per session)

Baby Farmers - Greenacre Guest Blog

Guest Blog from Caitlin Davies

It’s a warm Sunday morning and I’m standing a little uncertainly on a street of handsome Edwardian houses in East Finchley. The sun seeps out between the clouds, delicate pink blossom falls from roadside trees; it’s a scene of quiet suburban respectability. Yet 100 years ago one of these houses was a lying in home for unmarried pregnant women, and the centre of an infamous murder case that captivated and repulsed the nation.

I’ve come here to meet 32-year-old Penninah Asher; a year ago we’d never heard of each other, now we’re united by a strange case of family history and a century old crime.

Like millions of others in the UK, Penninah is fascinated by genealogy and ten years ago she decided to study her paternal line, “I come from a fractured family on my father’s side; I’m estranged from my dad, I haven’t seen him since I was 16, and I’d never met my grandparents; I didn’t even know their first names. I knew nothing about the family at all.”

Nearly a third of Britons have researched their ancestors online, and in the process one in six have found an illegitimate child or a secret adoption. But Penninah was to find out something far more shocking.

One day she got an email from a man who’d seen her family tree. He asked if she was aware that she was related to a woman convicted for mass murder, “And I thought, oh my god, I went straight back to the tree and I went over and over and checked and double-checked, and he was right.”

Several years after Penninah’s discovery, I came across her forebear as well. In 2007 I moved into a new home in Holloway, a small terraced house built in the 1890s. I became interested in the history of the area, trawling the archives at a local history centre, immersing myself in workhouse records and spending hours Googling leads on the Internet.

Then one day I stumbled across an Edwardian crime that had happened nearby; the case of two notorious baby farmers, Amelia Sach and Annie Walters, the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison, in 1903.

My first thought was, what was a baby farmer? And so began a year of research which I then turned into a novel, The Ghost of Lily Painter.

Amelia Sach

By the time the novel was finished, Penninah had got in touch to tell me her great grandmother was none other than Amelia Sach’s sister. It was then that we decided to meet up in East Finchley to try and find her forebear’s lying in home.

Sach and Walters in the dock

If you’re interested in hearing more about the Finchley baby farmers – what exactly was their crime and were they guilty? – come to The Finchley Literary Festival on May 31^st at Stephens House and Gardens (formely Avenue House) where I’ll be explaining how I researched the Ghost of Lily Painter and whether we managed to locate the lying in home.

The Ghost of Lily Painter is published by Windmill, as is Caitlin’s latest novel Family Likeness. She is also the author of several non-fiction books, including Taking the Waters: a swim around Hampstead Heath and Camden Lock and the Market, both published by Frances Lincoln.

To find out more about Caitlin’s work visit www.caitlindavies.co.uk or follow her on twitter @CaitlinDavies2

Ten Top Hints to Self-Publishing - Greenacre Guest Blog

Guest Blog from Greenacre Writer Linda Louisa Dell: 

1. Finding a self-publisher

This will depend on what you want. Do you want a hard copy or just an e-book? Do you want a package that contains a marketing plan? The price will vary greatly, from around £10.00 for an e-book alone, to several hundred pounds for added extras. But it is possible to publish your work as both a book and an e-book, with a good cover, for less than £100.00 and then pay extra for publicity, or do your own.

2. Proof reading and editing

If you can afford it, have your work professionally edited. Nothing looks worse than silly spelling and grammatical errors. Do not skimp on this.

3. How do you organize the promotion/sale of your books?

Make no bones about it, this is the hardest part. You have written your book, had it edited, published and bound in a beautiful cover. It is available on Amazon and kindle but now you have to let people know it’s out there. And advertising costs money.

Use twitter and facebook to spread the word. Ask people to write reviews on sites such as Amazon, Lulu or Waterstones. Help each other and exchange reviews. My publisher for The Story Tree created a video promo for Utube.

4. Press Releases and promotional materials

Write a press release and send it out to all your friends, bookshops, local press, club magazines, special interest, history or hobby magazines, and local radio and TV. Produce some flyers and/or postcards and spread them around in social clubs, your local library – anywhere people may see them.

Television promotion is well-nigh impossible to achieve and I have considered many ruses to get noticed by the media. Many independent book shops will stock self-published books on a sale or return basis and you can also approach them to stage readings, talks or book signings.

5. Endorsements

Ask for endorsements from famous people to use on your back cover. Ideally, this should be done before the book goes to print but it is never too late, and they can be used on advertising material and your web page.

 6. Web page and internet sites

Create a web page and keep it updated. Put the address on all your promotional material and send the book to on-line sites for reviews or competitions. Sites like bookopedia will advertise your book for £19.00 a year.

I entered my novel Yes and Pigs Might Fly into a competition for the best self-published fiction and it was nominated for the Wishing Shelf book Awards, coming third in the Best Adult Fiction category.

7. Libraries and Talks

Give copies to your local library and register with ALCS (the Authors Licensing and Collecting Society). Your library will also be able to put you in touch with reading groups and book clubs. You can also give talks to libraries, the Town Women’s Guild, U3A, various social groups, book clubs, and special interest groups.

8. Your cover: who designed it and what did it cost?

Most self-publishing companies will help you with your cover design. If you get this done independently it will cost anything up to two hundred pounds. You will need to produce something eye-catching, but appropriate.

The back cover should contain a ‘blurb’ designed to describe the book and intrigue the reader, and this will often appear as a ‘taster’ on the Amazon website or on kindle. It is also what a prospective buyer will read in a shop and should whet the appetite. If you can get any endorsements and quotes, this is where they should appear.

9. Promotion, advertising and flyers

I designed my own promotional material with the help of Copy Run for the cards and flyers, and The Writers Forum and The Self  Publishing Magazine for the magazine adverts. Advertisers will include this service in the price.

10. What has been the steepest learning curve of the whole process?

It is hard work and you will often feel frustrated and despondent. Don’t expect family or friends to always be helpful; you will have to be very thick skinned at times.

Keep going and do something to promote your book every day. And as Churchill said, never, never give up.

Recommended books:

Marketing and Publicising Books by Mary Cavanagh

1001 Ways to Market Your Books by John Kremer

Linda has self-published six books and several e-books, as well as three books with a regular publisher. Her new novel, Earthscape, will be available later this year. Find out more about Linda.http://www.lindalouisadell.com/

Linda Louisa Dell and Liz Goes will be hosting a self publishing talk as part of the Finchley Literary Festival Wednesday 28th May at Church End Library.

Spring Writing Retreat

Spring Writing Retreat 2014

Rosie Canning is organising a three day writing retreat. This is aimed at writers who want time to work on their writing, there will be no workshops or directed writing. 28th-30th March, 2014 at St Katharine's, Parmoor near Henley on Thames. Full board £160 from Friday teatime-Sunday teatime. Accommodation is in single rooms in the St Joseph's Annexe. St Katharine's This historic house stands in 12 acres of grounds in an area of great scenic beauty and abundant wildlife. The rural tranquility of the Chilterns, combined with a peaceful and relaxed atmosphere, make St. Katharine's an ideal destination for a writing retreat. Visitors are free to stroll around the grounds, or find a quiet corner to write and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere. There are a number of interesting features, including a walled garden, a pond, a formal garden which is in process of being renovated and a former sunken garden, which awaits restoration. You can also visit the chickens, who provide the delicious free-range eggs which are used in the House kitchen, and are also on sale to visitors. If you would like to book your place, contact Rosie Canning: greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Greenacre Writers Round up of 2013

Wishing all our followers a very Happy Christmas

 and a peaceful and joyous 2014

Greenacre Writers has had another busy year, with the year kicking off with a 6-session ‘Start That Novel’ course, led by Rosie Canning, with one session tutored by Dr Josie Pearse and another by Alex Wheatle. The course covered planning a novel, developing plot, characterisation, dialogue, point of view, first chapter, as well as giving participants feedback on their writing.

April saw the publication of Greenacre Writers Anthology Vol 2, with its launch at Cafe Buzz in North Finchley. One of our winning authors, Amy Flinders, was able to attend the launch to receive her prize. Several GW members who contributed stories read extracts aloud to those who came along to help us celebrate. We enjoyed the hospitality from Café Buzz owner, Helen Michaels, who plied us with coffee and cake! For more info click here.

Hot on the heels of the launch was the second Greenacre Writers Literary Festival. From a single event the previous year, it had grown to four; two workshops led by Miriam Halahmy and Josie Pearse, a Spoken Word event at Friern Barnet Community Library and the main event at Trinity Church Centre. Our four guest speakers were Sarah Harrison, Leigh Russell, CJ Flood and Gina Blaxill who gave us entertaining talks and readings. Members of GW also read extracts from their work. The day was rounded off with a lively panel discussion on Truth and Fiction with guest speakers and Alex Wheatle. Moderator was Allen Ashley who kept the passionate writers in line. For more info see here.

The festival launched our third short story competition and we were delighted that Alex Wheatle agreed to be our judge. Our first entry came within days of the launch with the last coming in at a minute before the deadline! The winners were announced in November and the third anthology is now underway.

Our members have been busy with their writing and we are always pleased when they achieve success.

Katie Alford was awarded a prize for her short story competition entry written in the style of a traditional Japanese folklore tale. It will be included in our forthcoming anthology.  

Lindsay Bamfield won a flash fiction competition in Writing Magazine and was shortlisted in the Chudleigh Phoenix short story competition and Flash 500. One of her flash fiction pieces was published in The Best of Café Lit 2012 and she had a 100-worder entitled ‘Gone’ published on the Café Lit website.

Helen Barbour has had great feedback on her very successful blog 'The Reluctant Perfectionist' about living with OCD to tie in with her novel whose main character has this condition. See link to Helen's blog to the right.

Rosie Canning had a 100 word flash fiction ‘Uncoupled’ published on the Café Lit website. She led a writing retreat at St Katharine's, Parmoor where writers were thoroughly spoilt while they got on with their writing. See here for the 2014 Spring Retreat. Once again, she was a reader for Radio Two’s 500 Words competition for children under 13. A preview of her forthcoming publication Occupied and Opened - the story of Friern Barnet Library was held in the library on the 5th September - the book will be published early in 2014. Rosie will also have a chapter in Steering the Mothership: The Complexities of Mothering by Lisa Cherry due to be published on Mother's Day, 30th March 2014. 

Linda Dell published her novel Earthscape, a Long Way from Home, a sci-fi, romance, adventure. One of her short stories was selected for A Wish for Christmas, a book of Christmas stories published by Alfie Dog. She has been approached by a New York publisher, Skyhorse, regarding a book on the A-Z of Aphrodisiacs which will be out next year.

Anna Meryt published a book of poems, Heartbroke. She facilitated and performed in a recent poetry event at The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green.

Wendy Shillam has regularly published chapters of her online novella The Author’s Song. The link to Wendy's online novella is on the right.

Plans are well underway for next year’s literary festival which has been renamed The Finchley Literary Festival and will be held from 24th to 31st May 2014. Watch this space.

Our three regular groups continue to meet regularly and all our members are busy with their works in progress. We look forward to more achievements next year.