POETRY IN PERPETUAL MOTION -- 'FRAGILE CARGO' NEW RELEASE

By BeWrite Books Poetry Editor Sam Smith

Simon Jackson’s sole-authored poetry collection, Fragile Cargo, is released today (April 13) by BeWrite Books.

Europe’s one official City of Literature, Edinburgh, Scotland will probably claim some of the credit for Simon’s inspiration; but we at BeWrite know that no matter where he might hang his hat, this globe-trotting artist can’t help creating – he’s just so talented.

For the moment – but with Simon one has to say for the moment – he does live in Edinburgh with his wife and daughter. But who knows where the future will take them?

He’s been a teacher and a journalist in East Europe, North Africa and South America (where he was Head of Drama at Newton College, Lima, Peru). He’s also a musician, and – as well as poetry – writes plays, short stories and original music, all of which have won awards. His short films have been screened by the BBC and internationally.

This impressive range of world and artistic experience shines through the sheer breadth of human emotions expressed in Fragile Cargo.

Author Simon Jackson

As award-winning poet and novelist Andrew Grieg says, ‘These poems take place in the world as we live (but do not necessarily know) it. Bars, hills, bus-journeys, bedrooms, classrooms and streets are their territory. Their underlying themes are those of our lives – love, transience, joy, anger, humour, the inevitability of loss and the possibility of recovery.’

Or as broadcaster and author Mark Wallington puts it, ‘Jackson is a brave poet. There’s an underlying tenderness to Fragile Cargo, but the poems are all written with such energy and bite that the reader is never allowed to feel comfortable. They’re funny too. Jackson captures our lives and dilemmas and works like a photographer to show us the way we really are. More please.’ And Mark Wallington should know 'funny'; he was writer for the hilarious Not the Nine O’Clock News TV comedy series.

Here’s Simon’s own way of introducing himself …

Tiptoe

A creeping mimicry of foetal position,
shrinking from contact with the earth,
shivering forward, poised for flight.

It implies dishonesty
to approach like a thief,
walking in a whisper.

This is how I offer myself to you,
deceitful, on tiptoe;
come to steal.

Fragile Cargo is available in paperback from all major online bookstores. Ebook editions for all electronic reading platforms from PCs and laptops, through the full range of hand-held reading devices and tablets, to iPods and smart phones are also available from your favourite online ebook store or from the BeWrite Books bookstore.

A free brochure for reading on screen, downloading or printed out is HERE. It includes cover, book notes, reviews, author biography and picture, and more examples of Simon’s poetry.

For those interested in the fine detail ... Author: Simon Jackson. Editor: Hugh McCracken: Cover photograph: Simon Jackson. External and internal text design and technical preparation of print and ebook editions: Tony Szmuk. Print Distribution: Ingram. Ebook editions Distribution: BeWrite Books Independent Distribution Division. Added Input: The BeWrite Books team.

Best wishes and happy weekend. Sam, Neil, Tony, Hugh et al at BeWrite Books.

WHEN ART DOESN’T ONLY REFLECT LIFE ... BUT IS LIFE ITSELF

Novelist, painter, illustrator, poet and musician Catherine Edmunds knows a thing or five about how art can become much more than a mere part of life.

And her multiple talents and passions shine through every page of her third novel, Serpentine, released today (April 6) by BeWrite Books..

She lives by her opening quotation in the book from 19th Century German philosopher, writer and composer Friedrich Nietzsche: ‘Art is the proper task of life.’

But although recognized and recorded human art dates back at least as far as the vibrant finger-daubings of our cave-dwelling ancestors, Catherine embraces new ways of expressing and exposing it. 

Serpentine is not the first of her heart-wrung works to make use traditional publishing skills and standards but also of state-of-the art technology to publish in modern electronic editions rather than print.

                                                                

   Here’s what Serpentine is all about ...

                                                                                            

                                                                                              ***

Victoria defines herself by her art. Painting isn’t a job – it’s an absolute need and the reason for her existence. But how is she to bridge the gap between her ambitions and her yearning for human relationships ... and love?

José gives her the intensity she craves but has no interest in her as an artist. Simon is mature and loving but his gentleness and inability to understand her desires drives her to distraction. John understands exactly who she is, but unnerves her with his piercing perceptiveness and violent nature (she knows who gave her friend Emma the bruises she carries on her face).

And throughout the snaking tangle of burning emotions to decide, she paints: tying down memories in cadmium yellow, burning canvases that reveal too much, whilst trying desperately to pay the bills.

The story is set in London and the North East of England and written by a Londoner who now lives in the North East. Author Catherine Edmunds has haunted the London galleries and seen the works that moved Victoria to tears; she’s shivered on the beach at Alnmouth as the bitter haar mist rolls in from the grey North Sea; she’s been overwhelmed by Durham Cathedral; she’s sat by the Serpentine lake in Hyde Park. And she’s ached to sketch what she felt.

As a gifted artist herself – creating both the cover art and an inside self-portrait for Serpentine – Catherine probes the profound questions faced by Victoria. Why do contemporary artists do what they do? Why are they so seemingly hell-bent on self-destruction? And what does all that stuff in Tate Modern art gallery really mean?

                                                                                              ***

Author Catherine Edmunds
(auto-portrait)

Catherine Edmunds was born in Kent, England and educated at Dartington College of Arts and Goldsmith’s College, London.

After a successful career as a professional musician, she re-invented herself as a portrait artist, illustrator and writer. She still teaches music but also works professionally as an illustrator and author with more than 250 poems and short stories in print.

Her illustrations can be seen in Daniel Abelman’s ALLAKAZZAM! (BeWrite Books), Irene Thompson’s A-Z of Punishment and Torture and her solo poetry collection, wormwood, earth and honey (Circaidy Gregory Press). Her magical realism novel Small Poisons (Circaidy Gregory Press) was published in 2009.

Reviews, competition successes, other publications and examples of her work can be found at her lively website.

She now lives a busier-than-ever life in the north east of England.

A free 37-page mini-book brochure of Serpentine, including cover, book notes, author biography and picture, and a generous extract is available HERE for download, reading on screen or printing out.

Serpentine is now available in all ebook formats from the BeWrite Books Bookstore or from all major online ebook-stores and many second-tier online retailers for reading on any electronic platform from PCs and laptops, through the full range of ebook-dedicated reading devices and tablets, to iPods and smart phones.

For those interested in the details: Author: Catherine Edmunds. Editor: Hugh McCracken. Cover art: Catherine Edmunds. Cover and text design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Distribution: BeWrite Books Independent Distribution Division. Additional input: The BeWrite Books Team.

Happy weekend, folks. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam, et al at BeWrite Books

TATTERED BRITISH EMPIRE QUAKES AS FURIOUS WELSH ISLANDERS DECLARE UDI

Veteran author Ian Skidmore is a staunch believer in equal opportunity … his love-hate relationships with England and Wales are of admirable egality.

Blatant bias he reserves exclusively for pipsqueak bureaucracy, which in English he might describe as ‘codswallop’ but in Welsh as ‘lol’, coincidentally reflecting in lower-case internet upper-case LOL, newspeak for ‘Laugh Out Loud’.

And Laugh Out Loud is what his newly released BeWrite Books e-novel Island Fling is all about … sheer, rolllocking hilarity from start to fin, as Welsh islanders – in Celtic high dudgeon – cheekily challenge the might of Great Britain in an all out bid for uncompromising independence (a state which Skidmore personally enjoys and used in countless millions of words to keep readers and radio show fans in thoughts and chuckles for several decades).

In Westminster, more than tea is stirred when Daffyd takes a fling with his sling at Goliath and the ‘cachu’ (use your imagination or a Welsh-English dictionary) hits the fan. But that serves ’em right. Let them sue!

(WARNING: To avoid the attention of men in white coats, it is recommended that Island Fling not be read in waiting rooms at dentists’ or psychotherapists’ clinics. Also, for the tranquility of mind of others, please to not attempt to read Island Fling in crowded buses or in first class commuter rail carriages. Turbulence in planes can be reduced by application of duct tape over the mouth. Reading in the street could cause collapse and subsequent trip-over injury to other pedestrians. BeWrite Books’ insurance does not cover the consequences of irresponsible reading.)

So here’s what the cover notes tell us of Island Fling:

***

Touchy people are lords of Welsh manors – and Huw ap Gryffydd is the touchiest of all. For him, it’s not the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, but the first.

So when the Her Majesty’s Royal Mail has the effrontery to replace the names of the tiny but proud and ancient Welsh islands of Yns Becod and Yns Tad with mere postal zip codes, enough is enough, already.

And before the hapless British Prime Minister can even make any gargling attempt to say, ‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch,’ ap Gryffydd whips his 2,000 colourful islanders into a Celtic frenzy.

They make a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the mainland and vow to stand, man, woman, child and Druid against any threat to their autonomy.

Centuries earlier the Romans sensed the power and peril of the wrath of the sleeping Welsh dragon, trembled in their togas, and left well enough alone. But those in Westminster’s corridors of power are too cocky for their own good, and rather than just go home for a nice cup of tea and a lie down as Caesar did, they lay plans to force the rebel islands back into line ... and abysmally underestimate what’s in store for their task force across a short stretch of sea.

Can Squire Huw and his makeshift defence brigade of wily Welsh defeat the might of the English so that the British become two islands short of being Great Britain ever again?

Skidmore’s Island Fling rolls swiftly from giggles to laughs to side-splitting hilarity as the Islanders lay their peculiar plans ... and those at Number Ten Downing Street, London desperately try every trick in the book (and some that aren’t in the book) to recapture the two little dots on their map, save face and keep upper lips stiff.

***

Author Ian Skidmore

One of Britain’s last great eccentrics, author Ian Skidmore has thirty books under his impressively lengthy belt – many of them best-sellers. He was also one of the most widely-read newspaper columnists and radio show presenters in the UK. After thirty years with BBC Wales, he was awarded by them the coveted Golden Microphone Award … and then fired a month later when BBC bureaucrats discovered he was English!

Ian Skidmore is a talent to rival Tom Sharpe. The funniest writer in Wales: Liverpool Daily Post. Hard act to follow: Wales on Sunday. Great eccentric: Western Mail. Hilarious: Anthony Hose, Director of Buxton, Beaumaris, Llandudno Festivals. Witty and erudite: Joe D Hendry, President of The Library Association. Witty and engaging. Tony Lewis Wales Tourist Board.

Skidmore’s sequel to Island Fling, The Magnificent Evan, will be released by BeWrite Books this summer. His outrageously funny Forgive us Our Press Passes about his days in newspapers is already available from BeWrite Books in OUR BOKSHOP SECTION HERE and all other major online bookstores. 

Over the coming months, BeWrite Books will be re-publishing much of Skidmore’s now out-of-print novels … and all new work, freshly produced in his NINTH decade of brightening the planet with wit, wisdom and belly laughs will now be exclusively in BeWrite Books ebooks editions. All author royalty he donates directly to charities.

And free mini-book brochures of Island Fling and Forgive Us Our Press Passes – including cover, book notes, author biography and picture, reviews and generous extract are instantly available to read right now HERE and HERE. Be sure to check into the author’s Saturday blog column at Skidmore's Island ... if you dare!

Artist John jensen

Cover art is by another revered and award-wining vet, the famously fun John Jensen, who has illustrated more than seventy books and whose brilliant cartoons – displaying wit, wisdom, art and a healthy dose of irreverence – have appeared in major newspapers and magazines all over the world for more than half a decade. Find out more about the colourful Jensen and check out some of his gallery of giggles at JOHN’S WEBSITE.

Island Fling is now available direct from the BeWrite Books BOOKSTORE, all major online retailers and in all digital formats for all electronic reading platforms from PCs and laptops, through the full range of dedicated ebook-reading devices and tablets to iPods and smart phones.

For those interested in the details ... Author: Ian Skidmore. Cover art: John Jensen. Editor: Neil Marr with invaluable proof-reading assistance in unfamiliar Welsh names and phrases from prolific author and editor Celia Skidmore. Text design, digital editions creation and distribution: Tony Szmuk. Additional input: The BeWrite Books team.

Happy Weekend, folks, and Iechyd da. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam et al

WHEN THE SMILE FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER IS FAKE ... THAT'S CAMERA OBSCURA

Rosanne Dingli’s Camera Obscura – released today, March 23, in paperback and all ebook editions by BeWrite Books – is a thriller reader’s dream, and one photographer’s nightmare.

The very title sets the scene, hinting that behind what the innocent lens sees lies dark mystery, evil and death.

Pages turn at shutter speed as characters snap into life in their desperate bids for discovery and truth and their yearning for understanding and love.

                      
 So, without further ado, here’s what Camera Obscura is about:

***

Photojournalist Bart Zacharin’s camera doesn’t lie … but his mysterious new lover Minnie Cuff lies for a living.

Love-struck Bart can’t get that into focus until he follows her from Australia on her flimsily excused trip to Europe and becomes embroiled in an obscure web of international organized crime, deception and murder.

Minnie’s a fake. Her humdrum job as a computer programmer, her deceptively carefree style and her passionate affair with Bart merely provide a plausible front for her sinister role as key player in a ring of ruthless museum raiders and smugglers of priceless artifacts.

Bart tries to take charge in a lover’s fierce hope to reform her on a dash around some of Europe’s most colorful port cities that becomes a frantic race for life itself, with deadly danger throwing its shadow at every twist and turn.

Fast moving yet poignant, Camera Obscura is one hapless man’s struggle with obsessive love that competes with a million-dollar crime empire: a search for meaning and belonging, thwarted by everyday happenstance and misfortune.

As in her previous novels ‘Death in Malta’ and ‘According to Luke’, the characters in ‘Camera Obscura’ become as real as Dingli’s meticulously researched locations. True paintings, stamps, and rare antiquarian books delicately spice pages that seem to turn in the wind as her breakneck-speed story keeps the reader in chair-edge suspense, right up to a startlingly unforeseen and unforgettable climax. NM

A plot as convoluted as the winding streets of Malta; a breath of the Mediterranean from various venues; two people – one abandoned, one exploited – searching for a primal need: the love of a father. And each, in his own way, finding it.

Particularly telling are the author’s descriptions: “Their red tail lights tunneled away through the narrow street,” and “He needed silence: he needed noise;” and, “… he spoke into the square ahead of him, the words entering the narrow street before him, ahead of the clatter of his feet.” Lovely, graceful sketches, each with a definite edge, intrigue the reader at every turn.

Reading such lines is very much like wading into a pond and stepping into an unexpected hollow, over one’s head, into depths never imagined. Dingli’s use of language does not impede the flow of her story; rather, it lends richness to the narrative, calling upon sensory and philosophical reader-identification that propels the story forward on several multilayered levels.

A sophisticated, smart, and deeply engaging novel that should attract readers everywhere.
                                                                                                   

                                                                                                                             Simon Lang
                  (Simon Lang is the nom de plume of acclaimed US author and script writer Darlene Artell Hartman)

                                                                               ***

Camera Obscura is available in print and ebook editions now from all major online bookstores. A free thirty-page mini-book brochure including cover, book notes, reviews, author biography and picture, and a generous extract can be read, downloaded or printed out HERE.

Rosanne Dingli, who has a personal blog, is the award-winning author of six collections of short stories. Her previous novels – each published by BEWRITE BOOKS – are Death in Malta and According to Luke. They are available in print and ebook editions everywhere and details and free mini-book brochures are at the BeWrite Books BOOKSTORE.

Author Rosanne Dingli

Born in Malta and extensively traveled, full-time author Rosanne is dedicated to the thorough historical and location research that pepper her spell-binding work to add that vital dash of irrefutable authenticity. She now lives in Western Australia.

For those interested in the details: Author: Rosanne Dingli. Editor: Hugh McCracken: Cover art, text design and technical preparation: Tony Szmuk. Extra input: The BeWrite Books team. Print Distribution: Ingram: Ebook Distribution: BeWrite Books Digital Distribution Division.

Happy reading and a relaxing weekend, folks. Neil, Tony, Hugh and Sam at BeWrite Books,

AUTHOR PETER TOMLINSON CONNECTS THE DOTS, AND DASHES OFF INTO A NEW GENRE ... WITH THE HELP OF MORSE CODE

BeWrite Books author Peter Tomlinson aimed to write a gritty thriller to build upon his early military experiences. But how does a writer make such a dramatic switch from a lifetime of poetry and the subtle philosophical messages of his intriguing and on-going historical fantasy series, The Petronicus Legacy?

Peter found the perfect solution to the very real character shift every author must make before creating and identifying with new characters to populate a different type of story ... he made notes, corrections and revision updates to every draft of Brotherly Love in the Morse Code he used during his army days as a signalman!

“A bit like method acting, I suppose,” Peter said. “I had to find a way of keeping in character as I wrote. If you’ll excuse the pun, Morse was the key.”

And it worked. If his name wasn’t on its striking cover, it would be hard to believe that this high-octant action novel – released today by BeWrite Books – was from his pen.

Here’s what Brotherly Love is all about:

***

‘Brotherly Love’ is the mighty flagship of the renowned Mercy Fleet, financed by one of the richest men on earth to bring emergency relief and medical aid to crippled countries ravaged by poverty, drought, famine and disease ... at least that’s what the world believes.

But love and mercy are far from the true mission of the ‘Brotherly Love’ and its renowned angelic armada. And aged multi-billionaire Vival – internationally praised for his philanthropy – is anything but a selfless humanitarian.

Nearing retirement, Ralph Collingwood has his quiet life in a peaceful English village torn apart when he’s ordered by British intelligence bosses on a last desperate international assignment ... to risk his life in a bid to expose what the cargo of the ‘Brotherly Love’ really is ... misery, torture and death ... and the Mercy Fleet’s sinister mission ... to rip civilization asunder.

Tomlinson’s race-paced thriller spans the wild seas and desolate peaks of the world and of the human spirit as actual brotherly love strives to expose Vival and his Mercy Fleet’s sinister plans for the horrendous evil they are. NM

***

Author Peter Tomlinson

Peter, who now lives in rural Shropshire, England with his astute and eagle-eyed beta-reading wife, Margaret, draws on his Merseyside roots and colorfully varied life as telegraph boy, soldier, teacher, fencing instructor, mountaineer and overseas cultural guide in his latest novel.

He said: “After the gentler style of poetry and – although the books are filled with action and adventure – The Petronicus Legacy, adjusting to a military theme was daunting. But I’ve never lost my passion for Morse over the years, and when I decided to revert to the code for draft manuscript revisions, it took me right back to early post-war years on Cyprus and the memories and tensions of that time were re-kindled and became crystal clear. Even some of the characters in my book are based on old pals I remember from sixty years ago. Quite a thrill.”

Brotherly Love is now available at the BEWRITE BOOKS BOOKSTORE and at all major international ebook retail stores in all digital formats for reading on all electrical platforms from PCs and laptops through the full range of e-ink reading devices and tablets to smart phones and iPods.

You can also download a twenty-five-page mini ebook brochure of the book, including cover, author biography and picture, and a generous extract HERE.

The Petronicus Legacy is also available in print and ebook editions at all major online stores and also in a 50%-off three-book e-omnibus. The fourth book in The Petronicus Legacy series, The Life of Nistal, is to be released later this year. There’s a free seventy-page mini-ebook brochure for the entire collection so far, including book notes and an excerpt from each book HERE.

For those interested in the detail: Brotherly Love. Author: Peter Tomlinson. Editor: Hugh McCracken. Cover art and design, text design and technical preparation of digital editions: Tony Szmuk. Additional input: the BeWrite Books team. International distribution: BeWrite Books.

Happy weekend. Neil, Tony, Hugh, Sam et al at BB

And .... .- .--. .--. -.-- / .-- . . -.- . -. -.. / .- -. -.. / --. --- --- -.. / .-. . .- -.. .. -. --. from Peter Tomlinson, too.

Peter Tomlinson
working his Morse key in the army more than fifty years ago