Bristol Book Fair

Very much looking forward to attending this as a guest author!

Visit to St Louis Grammar

It is always a joy to be asked to visit schools, either to discuss my books, read for pupils or to provide creative writing workshops.

To be asked back year after year and help year 8 pupils to prepare for their first written work is an absolute honour.

I spent the 6th and 7th of October this year back in St Louis Grammar in Ballymena among some old and new faces. We played games, laughed lots and worked our way through the 'How To's' of essay writing. There was even time at the very end of the last class for a 'selfie'.

Thank you so much, folks. I hope to see you all again next year :)

‘I found everything about the workshop enjoyable. I’m obsessed with books and meeting authors makes my heart and brain do somersaults! Ashley was really fun and interesting.’

(Lana 8 Lismoyle)

‘I thought Ashley McCook made the workshop really enjoyable, especially through the games she played with us. Her personality made it so much fun!’

(Cora 8 Laragh)

‘The games we played were so enjoyable. They were with story blocks and Ashley was very nice.’

(Clodagh 8 Lismoyle)

‘The creative writing workshop really helped me prepare for my CM task as Ashley McCook gave us lots of pointers on how to improve creative writing  and told us how enjoyable reading can be’.

(Neve 8 Laragh)

The Deep Breath Before the Plunge

I walk on the beach most mornings.

If I'm being honest, it's the best part of my day - fresh air, exercise, beautiful scenery, salt on my lips, sand in my shoes - I come home relaxed and with a clear head, ready to face the day.

There are people who, like me, walk there regularly - the lady with the pink shoes, the trio of pensioners who laugh lots and seem to have as much fun as their equally jolly dogs, the bare-foot jogger (a shade over six feet tall, dark hair, brown eyes, cheeky grin), the man who used to walk slowly using a cane for balance and who now puts me to shame striding up the beach (the cane is long gone), the couple who swim briefly every morning, no matter the weather. During the summer the beach was overtaken with tourists jumping into the waves or exploring the sand hills and, for a few days, the 'Game of Thrones' crew filmed there.

This morning I came across a pair of rather beautiful size 11 leather shoes sitting on the sand, dark grey socks tucked inside them. Not unusual - people leave their shoes on the shore all the time while they dip their toes in the water. This pair, however, were under threat - a large red setter had spotted them, sniffed them and had decided to claim them. I lifted them just as he lifted his leg.

Turned out they belonged to a rather dapper man, resplendent in a suit and tie who was paddling a few feet away, trousers rolled up to the knees, tie slightly askew and glasses pushed onto the top of his head. After sharing a laugh at the close call, we got talking.

Keith was about to drive to Belfast to make an important presentation to the owners of the company that he worked for. If successful, he would move up the corporate ladder, secure his future in the company and relocate to London where the company have their headquarters.

He was nervous about the presentation but fairly confident in his own ability to perform well under pressure. He also knew that he was good at his job and was considered an asset to the company. In reality, it was a done deal - the presentation was the final step. He was on his way. Everyone was happy for him.

And yet...

He had driven to Portstewart Strand at 8:30 in the morning because he felt he needed to take a deep breath of sea air - he was conflicted about moving away. He would miss home. He would miss walking his dog on the beach. He would miss meeting his mates for a pint. He would miss standing on Harbour Hill and looking down on the Promenade. He would miss his girlfriend. He would miss his parents. He would even miss his bloody annoying older sister and her quartet of mad children.

Having had several similar conversations recently, I let him talk it all out until he ran out of steam and then I offered the only advice I had, 'Are you ever likely to have this opportunity again?' He thought about it, smiled sadly and shook his head. 'Then go for it. This is home and you can always come back.'

Good luck, Keith.

Live and Learn.

 'Due to circumstances beyond our control the Booked! convention for 21st and 22nd November 2014 has been cancelled.'

This is definitely NOT the kind of email I want to read after all the excitement of realising that I was going to be heading off to my first convention as an author, and just days after starting to promote the event all over the place.

Disappointed.

Booked! 2014

Very tickled to be attending this and looking forward to meeting other authors and readers. Can't wait!

This convention will take place in Bristol in the Mercure Holland House Hotel and Spa. You can find out more about it by visiting the Booked! blog HERE

World Book Night 2014

I'm really looking forward to celebrating World Book Night on April 23rd in Waterstones, Ballymena with Tony MacAulay and DJ McCune (yes, I will be taking my autograph book!!!). It promises to be a fun night - wine, chat, readings and books all around - so if you're in the area then please call in and say hello.

DJ McCune

Tony MacAulay

Me!

Reversal of (phone) Fortune.

Towards the end of last summer (remember summer? sunshine, heat, beach days? Yeah, it's been a while) I reversed over my phone. I know, I know. I was going to wash the car, you see, and was reversing it back up the drive with the door open, my phone slipped out of my pocket and CRUNCH! 

My poor phone went into emergency surgery (on the kitchen table, lots of sellotape involved) and, apart from a rash of spider-webby cracks on the screen, he still worked. I celebrated (of course).

I was aware from the beginning that the sellotape surgery was not going to be a long term solution and eventually my phone and I were going to have to part company but, as with all things that have the potential to break my heart, I put it to the back of my mind and carried on as though it wasn't a big deal.

Now, I don't know about you but I had never really considered what a huge part of my life that little bundle of electronics had become - he's just THERE. 

Until he started to act up.

Nothing major really, at the beginning, just the odd little quirk that I found endearing - like I can't answer/make a call normally - the phone has to be on speaker. Funny, right? Slightly inconvenient but no big deal. Recently, however, my trusty pal has gone into a downward spiral of little eccentricities that can no longer be laughed off; he is selective about which texts he lets me know about; some days he will allow me to post to Facebook, tweet on Twitter etc etc with no problems, 24 hours later? No chance of any communication with the outside world. Added to the fact that he chooses which games he will allow me to play (this changes on an hourly basis depending on his mood) and has now begun to 'forget' search requests (for example - I decide to check my sales on Amazon and hit the Amazon bookmark...he starts to search and then the search bar goes blank and the phone sits there doing a phone version of looking around and frowning in confusion) and I have starting to get very concerned about his health.

My contract is up around September time. He may not make it :(

WARNING! This Book May Be Cursed!!

It's taken a very looooooooong time to get this book written, edited, covered, and published (over 20 years!) and every step along the way there have been obstacles and pitfalls. However, since I'm a stubborn cow (and I really, really wanted to tell this story!) I kept at it; so when I say that I'm delighted to finally be able to list links for my new book then I'm understating how utterly delighted (and exhausted) I am.

This is my new book baby! 

"Shannon's ordered life in a beautiful seaside town in Northern Ireland is about to be blown apart; her psychic gifts keep her secretly employed by the US government but have also caught the attention of a dangerous terrorist group and. forced to flee to Dublin, Shannon has very little time to decide who to trust." 

When I started this book back in 1991, I was writing stories for no-one but myself to read. The Good Friday Agreement was still 7 years away and 'The Troubles' were still a huge part of life in Northern Ireland. I'd read about the U.S. government's 'Stargate' Program and I was intrigued by the idea of psychic phenomena being used in counter-terrorism and espionage. Naturally the idea of such abilities being put to use in my own country worked its way into a story.

Since there have been so many changes over the past 20+ years, this book has gone through more re-writes and edits than any other story I've ever written. The core idea is the same, the location (my hometown at the time - Portstewart) never changed but it feels like everything else in the universe did!

So many things have gone wrong with the publication of this book (too many to go into - maybe that's a post for another time) that I was starting to feel the universe was trying its damnedest NOT to let me publish it but like I said, I'm stubborn (and my mum LOVED it!).

So here are the links:

The eBook via Smashwords

The eBook via Amazon UK

The eBook via Amazon US

The paperback via Waterstones

The paperback via Amazon UK

The paperback via Amazon US

Thrilled, Delighted, Honoured, Proud!

So it's been a tough year (and it's not over yet!) and this week hammered home to me how much has changed in the last twelve months and how much more it will change before my personal life gets sorted out. In the work-write-kids-eat-sleep- repeat of everyday and the feeling that nothing is ever quite finished or good enough, it's very easy to get lost in a downward spiral.

Thankfully the powers that be in the universe have decided to give me an early Christmas present ...and on Friday 13th as well! (They obviously have a wickedly wonderful sense of humour)

Not only have my book babies made it onto a 'Top 12' Christmas list but the list is on the blog of Uproar Comics who I am in awe of and all fangirly (if that's not a real word then it should be!) over. Excited much? Me? Yes, thank you!

Check out the blog post HERE and please feel free to do a little happy dance with me (and the Doctor!). Oh, and be sure to check out the rest of the Uproar Blog - there are some really fabulous posts on there.

Best wishes

Creative Writing Workshop

Looking forward to this! And yes, I know I'm much too old to attend but they are very kindly allowing me to go along and chat about writing. Happy days :)

You Meet Some Interesting People in Bookshops....

I had a book signing in Waterstones, Coleraine on Saturday 2nd November. The weather was atrocious - in Northern Ireland we call that kind of rain 'a deluge'...it just comes down in sheets and doesn't stop for ages; great fat drops of water thundering out of the sky and soaking everyone in seconds. It was okay though - I was happy inside a nice warm shop, surrounded by books, drinking coffee and signing books while I watched the lads from Uproar Comics sign their copies of Zombies Hi and draw zombie portraits of the customers. It was excellent.

One of the most common questions I get asked at book signings is 'What are your books about?' And the man who stopped by my table around 3pm didn't disappoint. He lifted one of my books, flicked through it and asked 'So, what's this about?"  I launched into my description about Emily, demons, angels, teenage angst and paranormal romance. The man nodded, put the book down and lifted another. "So, are you famous?" he asked. "Um...no, sorry," I told him. He nodded again, put the book down, lifted the third in the series, flicked through it and said "So, have you written any books about witches?"

Now at this point my mouth dropped open - the new series that I'm writing is indeed about witches but no-one, and I mean NO-ONE knows about it. "Um..." I managed to splutter. The man seemed unconcerned about my lack of brain-to-mouth coordination, he set the book down and said, "Hold on a minute." Off he went and I got distracted by someone else wanting some signed books, got lost in chatting about the new books that's coming out soon, giggled at the antics of the Uproar Comics clan as they clowned about biting each other on the neck for photos and then the man came back and showed me a photo on his phone - it was of the cover of a book about a history of witches. "I don't really like witches," he told me, "But I thought you might find that book interesting."

I think I managed to thank him and he nodded, said it had been nice chatting to me and he'd be sure to come back and buy some of my books and then he disappeared out into the rain. 

As chance encounters go it was right up there on my 'well-that-was-weird' scale but I've taken it as a sign that I should keep going with this series (I was wavering a little) so thank you mystery man! 

In Defense of Dreamers.

I'm concerned for the future of the human race.

Well, obviously we all are to some degree since we're managing to make such a complete horlicks (mess, for those of you not familiar with the term) of the planet that we live on. My concern isn't about the fact that fossil fuels are going to run out, global warming is going to turn us all into crispy critters (or drown us all when the polar ice caps melt) or whatever else the worry of the day is. No, my concern is that eventually all us dreamers will cease dreaming and the world as we know it will grind to a halt.

Am I being overly dramatic?  Um...well, maybe.

The fact remains that for every dreamer on the face of the planet right now there are probably several thousand realists ready to stomp all over your dreams in their hob nailed boots and then tell all their friends what an important service to mankind they are providing by 'keeping their feet on the ground'.

You've had this happen to you, right?

You: I'd really love to be a writer.

The Realist: Do you know how many people try and fail every day? Millions! And now that the market has opened up and every Tom, Dick or Harry with internet access can upload their 'masterpiece' onto Amazon, we're all inundated with so much rubbish that pretty soon no-one will want to read anymore.

You. But...

The Realist: Besides, you never did well at school, your grades were always mediocre. You need to be smart to be a writer.

You: I just really feel that I want to...

The Realist: You're a nobody from nowhere, how would you even get someone to read what you write? Your attempts at writing would just get lost in the ocean of books already out there so there's not much point really.

So what's the big deal? So what if a few people quit daydreaming and start being realistic? Well, what if it spreads like a disease? What if it spreads to the visionaries, the designers, the builders, the creators, the star gazers, the romantics, the artists? In short, what if we lose those people who have always provided our momentum, pushing society forwards? Who make life colourful and interesting?

This may be a tongue-in-cheek blog post but hey, I'm a writer; I can't resist asking 'what if?' 

Time to Press the Panic Button. Again!

You'd think it would be simple, wouldn't you? I mean it sounds simple; just press the 'send' button and the new book will be on its way to the designer, ready to be given a brand new suit for its publication day so that it can be unleashed into the universe.

Okay. That sounds GREAT...so just get on with it!

*finger hovers over 'send' button*

But wait...what if I've forgotten something.

*sigh*

Fine, let's go over the checklist. AGAIN.

1) Book is finished?  Yep. All done. 

2) Book has been to beta readers? Yes. Several times...

3) Book has been revised as per beta readers' observations? Done. Several more times...

4) Book has been edited? Yes. Oh, yes.

5) Book is a good as you can possibly make it? Yes. Probably. Hopefully.

6) You've written a short blurb/synopsis for the back page? ....yes...

So it's all done? What exactly are you waiting for? Someone to do it for you? Just press the damn button.

FINE! *presses 'send' button*

*SILENCE*

Oh. My. God. It's on its way!

Guilty (Book) Pleasures

Not so long ago, adults who read books aimed at a teen audience were either in a minority or hiding their reading material behind a fake cover just in case they were laughed at or considered...weird - this piece by Joel Stein in the NY Times shows what a number of people once thought (or a minority still believe?)

Along came JK Rowling and her young wizard. Reading about the adventures of Harry Potter and his pals was SO inclusive that the publisher produced editions with updated covers especially for the adult market. And it wasn't just the Potter books that received this treatment - Philip Pullman, Mark Haddon, Lian Hearn (to name a few) have also been successful in the 'crossover' market. Twilight, The Hunger Games , The Mortal Instruments Series and a huge number of others have all earned a popularity beyond their intended audience.

The same is true for readers of erotic fiction and the kind of speculative fiction which challenges society's ever-expanding list of taboos. The HUGE popularity of the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy (and its vast number of looky-likey clones) pushed readers from behind their newspapers and out of the dark recesses of their guilt-caves and into the spotlight - suddenly you were weird if you HADN'T read it (I haven't, in case you were wondering, but then I've always been a little weird).

So, I'm wondering - what's next to be crossed off the list of 'Reading Taboos'? Women reading Haynes car manuals? No, wait...that's already been done. Men reading 'Instructions'? Pah, what am I saying? That'll never happen!

What the...?!

I'm not one of those people who 'Googles' themselves but occasionally I look up my website to make sure it's performing the way it should. 

I have never authorised any advertising on my website, not because I'm against advertising or anything like that but simply because I haven't been asked by any companies that I actually use myself! So imagine my surprise when I checked on my site this morning and discovered, not only one of those bloody annoying 'Oyodomo' pop-up, questionnaire things but also a rash of links throughout my content sending people off to other publishing sites, online dating companies and even the likes of Tesco! 

Um...no! 

Half an hour of mumbling to myself, making a coffee, glaring at the screen and scratching my head, I figure that either a) the company who manage my site (1&1) have authorised the advertising or b) some cheeky chappies have hijacked my pages and added their own links. 

Neither of these possibilities gives me any kind of warm and fuzzy feelings; in fact both of them are downright rude!

So, do I go into my account and delete all the links one by one (is that even possible?) or do I contact each company and tell them to clear off? Hmmm.

So far I have sent an email to 1&1 asking if they know what's going on and phoned my mother...as you would!

Anyone else had this problem? What did you do about it?

The Joy and Misery of the First Draft.

When people find out that I love to write books, one of their first questions tends to be "Where do you get your ideas?"

I would love to say that I am one of those tremendously organised individuals who has an 'Ideas Journal' or a day of the week set aside for 'Possible Plot Meditation' but the truth is that ideas are everywhere - it's a constant barrage of background noise inside your head; a stream of 'what if...?' and 'imagine if...' and 'maybe...'

Occasionally one of these little voices gains strength and speaks up a little louder than all the rest. It squashes the others down until it's all that you can hear and then you just have to write about it or go crazy! Erm...maybe that's just me.

Once you begin to write about it, it consumes you. It's feverish, that kind of writing - it flows out of your brain and onto the page (or the screen) at speed and in bursts of startling clarity. It's the most delicious feeling, to be caught up in that wave of creativity, surfing along its length and whooping with joy at simply being able to weave the story and follow the characters. 

Every wave, however, has to break and every so often I find myself sitting at my computer screen and staring at the keys, perplexed. The 3,000 words I wrote yesterday, or even the 10,000 I managed last week suddenly seem ridiculous, trivial...maybe even pathetic. The ability to add more or to see where the story could go is impossible and the temptation is to hit the delete button and start again - I've done that so many times. However, I've had an epiphany of sorts and I now realise what this is - this is part of the journey from forming the idea to writing 'The End': This is The First Draft. Even though a good 60-80% of this won't make it into the final cut (it tends to be back-story) it's still important in the grand scheme of 'getting-the-book-written'.

So, if you're one of those folk who has been writing constant first drafts and giving up when you hit the sandy shores of your idea then take my advice and next time, keep going. Even if you only manage a sentence today...well, it's a sentence more than you had yesterday and don't worry - the great thing about the 'writing and the sea' metaphor is that the tide will come in to rescue you again soon.

Best wishes.

This whole Social Media Thing is Damned Difficult!

I read a blog post a few weeks ago (sorry, I can't remember who wrote it or where...I was just browsing) which stated that the writer, in no uncertain terms, was fed up with being 'nice'. She'd spent the better part of a year attempting to build her 'online presence' with a decent weekly blog, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads etc. etc. etc and had a reasonable number of followers/friends/fans on each. Her books were selling well (for an Indie) and things were ticking along quite sweetly.

Unfortunately, she felt like a fraud.

You see, she'd done her homework before she went online - she'd told herself that she was going to learn from the mistakes of others and never blog, tweet, post, like anything controversial. She had toned her language down, selected her Facebook 'Friends' with care, only shared book related blogs via Triberr and she was starting to feel the strain of being...well, I suppose she was being the 'magnolia paint' version of herself. It got me thinking - is that what I'm doing too?

Isn't that the whole issue with the World Wide Web? Everyone wants to be liked and if you're promoting your book, music, art, whatever, then you have a vested interest in presenting yourself in the best possible light. However, as far as I can see, the people who are most successful via social media seem to be those who don't shy away from making waves, giving opinions and generally acting 'human'; which was surely the whole point of social media to begin with - one human being communicating/interacting with another. Of course...I could just be over-thinking it all!

Best wishes.

This Summer Town.

Surfing in July.

I live in a seaside town in the very North coast of Northern Ireland.

In summer the population of the town swells to bursting, with the trains expelling another influx of day-trippers every hour and tour buses disgorging sun, sea and sand seekers onto the beaches and parks (and into the pubs).

The 'day job'.

My 'day job' is in retail and the store that I work in has a prime location a few hundred yards from the train station and on the main drag through the town. The shop sells fashion, footwear, home-wares, stationery, electricals, soft furnishings, gardening and pet items along with a small selection of grocery and perfumes. It's spread over two floors in a building that was once the old town station (and then a nightclub where I used to dance the night away, but let's not get into that). I started working there in December last year, enjoyed a fairly busy Christmas and then a cold and wet winter before the first serious tourists began to arrive around Easter.

The change of pace was incredible and I wondered how the main summer season would compare.

The summer season was insane.

Ready for the tourists.

The shop refilled regularly as people got off trains and buses, folk wandered in from the beach, often in bare feet and bikinis, looking for sunscreen, towels, shades, drinks, underwear (amazing how many people come away on holiday and forget to pack underwear!), queues built up and disappeared, the store got messed up and tidied. It passed in a flash of sunshine, sand, laughter and waves of tiredness that left me unable to do anything but fall into bed when I got home.

Everything else fell by the wayside - my writing suffered, my home got messy, my kids ended up cooking for me instead of the other way around. It was crazy.

Roller-coaster sunset.

And now it's September; the beaches are empty of windbreakers and sandy sandwiches, there's no queue for the Post Office and always plenty of chilli-chicken baguettes at the deli counter. The locals have reclaimed their parking spaces and their Sunday walks: Children are wearing coats again as the chill creeps back into the air and the waves send spray high onto the rocks. It seems to be a common belief that a Summer town is sad and depressed once the tourists have gone home; that it craves those few months every year when its streets are full, its beaches echo with the song of bathers splashing in the water and the late night party crowd stagger home through warm breezes from the ocean, their bare feet sinking into still-warm sand. 

My hometown.

My hometown.

Yes - during the winter months our town is quiet; most shops open fewer hours, the caravan dwellers disappear back to the city and the holiday-home owners sign their second homes over to the student rental market. It's peaceful, I suppose. So long as you don't mind the colder weather, lots of rain and storms that roll in off the sea, which I don't. 

But 'sad'? 'Depressed'? To be honest I think that this Summer town gives a sigh of relief once August ends, pulls on a heavy sweater and welcomes Autumn with a smile on its face and a fresh wind full of promises.

Best Wishes.

Hate Mail.

I LOVE receiving emails from readers. Whether they've loved one of my books or have something they want to point out about them - if it's a grammar or spelling mistake, and especially if it's from book 1, then it's usually deserved (!) and I take note. After all, if someone has taken the time and energy to let me have their opinion then I should show my gratitude by reading what they have to say, responding to them and learning from my mistakes.

Well, this week I received 4 emails which really shook me.

All four were in the same vein - basically I was accused of 'corrupting the minds of teenagers' by writing 'filth and blasphemy' and 'coercing young adults' into 'following dark paths' by 'documenting how to practice satanic rituals'. It was pointed out to me that as a mother I should be concerned with keeping the minds of young people healthy instead of 'insidiously leading them into immoral activities' etc. etc. There was a ton more which got more disturbing as time went on but I'm sure you get the gist. I put off replying because I knew that any of my first reactions (flippant  - 'did you know that I was off work this week and wanted to give me something to worry about?' or argumentative 'did you actually read any of the books?') would have been a mistake.

After receiving the first email I was a bit disturbed but put it down to someone seeing the titles of my books and making an assumption about their contents...like the lady who came along to my first book signing, handed me a card for one of my local churches and whispered that 'God loves you anyway'. I kept the card.

I've seen author melt-downs on Goodreads etc. where they defend their books vehemently, raging against reviews and comments in a way that makes me cringe and turns the blogging/ reviewer community against authors...and quite rightly so. Most authors would agree that when you put your work into the public domain you have to accept that not all the responses you receive will be positive, but you have to turn the other cheek and let it go.I think the same should go for one-to-one emails. Of course I have strong feelings about my books, characters, settings, storyline etc. etc. but that doesn't mean that everyone who reads them will like them or approve of them. As I've said before, criticism can be constructive and if it is then I welcome it; these emails, however, freaked me out and, yeah, they hurt. 

After the fourth email in as many days I lost my cool a little and (yeah, I'm not proud that I gave in and ignored my own advice!) posted on Facebook (on my personal account):

Dear Haters, It would be great if you could put 'Hate Mail' or something in the subject line of your emails from now on, rather than just the titles of my books, so that I know not to read your messages before fortifying myself with coffee and chocolate. Many thanks 

Wrong thing to do? Maybe, but getting it off my chest helped. And the emails stopped - coincidence? Maybe. 

I deleted the emails.