Julia by Margaret Bowker is now published and generally available

I’ve just realised my last post was in February, which seems years ago. So much has happened since then. We have a new Government, I’ve been on two holidays and finally, Julia has got published through youwriteon.com. Mostly importantly, it’s available at places like Amazon, Waterstones and WHSmith at ‘normal’ prices, which means Pembury Publishing, home of the Modern Classics Writing project, has achieved one of its main ambitions. It still remains to get into the shops in the UK, but that’s for another day. Julia is nearly three hundred pages of romantic drama, inspired by the great novels of Jane Austen, and if you like strong storylines and developed characters, reading in ’3D’, this is for you. Follow Julia Mariott’s story and Vanessa Grey’s, commiserate with them and enjoy their victories; and ponder over the men in their lives. You may like or hate them, but you won’t be bored. Happy reading and good luck with your own literary projects.

Langley Grotto

As I can’t get onto Twitter at the moment, or very few financial and political sites, I thought I’d use wordpress to release a short exerpt from the new novel. The press release saying I’m giving examples of the new book is the most highly clicked. So here’s the brief exerpt, a bit of conversation between junior governess, Madeline Charlton, heiress, Jocasta Cecil, who has ambitions to be a spirited girl  and hard up and married, Selena Deramore.

Jocasta regarded her with interest. “Go on, Madeline, you have nothing to hide.”

   Madeline considered. ”I have my stipend like Reverend Datchett and income from a small property.”

                  ”And the rest,” muttered Marcus.

                   ”How jealous he is,” laughed Selena. “Be pleased for Miss Charlton, Marcus.”

                     ”Indeed, Mrs Deramore, I have no expectations beyond what I have described,” insisted Madeline.

                     “Yes, yes, we will believe you, and what about you, dear Miss Cecil, queen of the party? Do you have vast expectations that would stun us all?”

                    “Yes,” said Jocasta simply, “I suppose I do.”   

About ten chapters written now and starting to get a feel of the book. I have only outline ideas of where it’s going and the characters seem to write it.

Update on Julia

So Julia is finished and I’m waiting to hear if an imprint of a mainstream publisher is interested. At least it’s being read, which is good. I also have another avenue and am waiting to hear from that one. With both these publishers, the books will be at a reasonable price, by which I mean about seven or eight pounds. This is a big step forward and I hope one of them goes through. I can’t believe how much my books cost with Lulu. It makes them difficult to get onto sites, although, having said that, on one search site recently I found fourteen hundred copies and am actually going to get a royalty cheque ffrom Lulu, not for that amount I hasten to add, but anything is welcome. I’m probably going to frame it. Perhaps it will act as a talisman and bring me luck.

I have mentally started on my next book, which is to say, I have got out my notes on scraps of paper and assembled them. The most important part of these notes is the bits of conversation I have scribbled down. They drive my books and I get a name in my head for a character and I make them speak. I was saying this on Professor Zeki’s blog. He was considering a well known writer’s comment that his character’s come to life at a certain stage in their development. Mine, I was adding, seem to be ‘born’ when they speak and can stand up for themselves. Do look at Professor Zeki’s site, just google him, and see how interesting it is when a noted neurobiologist comments on literature and writing.

I’ll do a press release when I’ve heard from the publishers in the NewYear. Julia is worth waiting for and if I can get the price down, then the writing project will have moved on considerably.

New Website Address

So having obtained a new  website through the good offices of several kind people, I thought the time had come to modernise its address and make it shorter and more memorable.  Hence, Pembury moved the various pages, including news, literary, project and vision; about Margaret; books, each with its brief synopsis; home page; and a soon to arrive new page, all onto the simple address of http://www.margaret-bowker.com

An intriguing part of this list of new address contents is the new page. It is presently in progress and is a page about the new book, Julia, which, as we speak, is going through its last stages. Julia is some  one hundred and eight thousand words long; average for me. The Interloper was about one hundred and twenty thousand words and therefore, more costly to put on websites, even though it is rewritten and smoother. Thus if I have to put Julia on Lulu or some other self-publish because mainstream still haven’t got the courage, it won’t be hideously expensive, just unusually. You would think that when artswork gets around the world on domestic sites, China, Hong Kong, India,  Australia, the Middle East , Canada, America  and  Europe etc, that someone would see that if the work were produced at a normal price, it might actually sell on a larger scale. I mean about a thousand books  a year, which, I understand is the average number for literary books these days. It doesn’t sound much of a risk to me and one could always off set it against encouraging artwork. But people could afford to buy it and not have to rent, or download and print it out when they had the time and paper.

 I don’t think it’s unnatural to want to see the work out there at a reasonable price. Apropos of that, there are 4 copies of Farina House, up on play.com, signed and at a two pounds cheaper than the host site, including postage. That’s all they will let you reduce. Sorry. But Pembury tried putting it up on E bay and people complained they couldn’t find the advert. So it’s play.com – Farina House for those who toiled through the interminable pages and found it had gone.

The new website page, called Julia, will have lots of interesting bits of information, such as how and where I found the  inspiration for the book, what motivated me, where I went to get ideas for some of the locations, ie the houses. I love substantial old houses and visit them as often as I can. One house inspired Mrs Hammond’s  heraldic beasts in The Interloper.  So keep an eye on the website. The new page will be up soon.

 

 

 

New Version of The Interloper

So, finally, The Interloper is out with revised text and cover. I like the cover. It’s much brighter. I think the text is smoother too, so it’s worth a look; and remember, downloads of The Interloper are free from Lulu.com. Love the new website too, so things are quite positive at the moment. Also UCMK, the university project I’ve lobbied for and still do when appropriate, has moved to the next stage of bidding for the new build and that’s great news. Considerable competition, so well done, everyone.

I also write commentary on the political and financial situation and was recently reading a piece by Edmund Conway, who was saying when are we going to get a good play or programme about the ongoing recession, or the great panic, as some financial commentators call it. I’m not sure I would. I was going to blog on his site, but it’s not working at present.

I find it very interesting to be writing romantic, historical drama one minute and financial or political commentary the next. It takes a lot of concentration; or lobbying for huge projects. I personally think that high finance is drama because it really affects peoples’ lives; and if you want to see what my commentary is like, you can look on google where it’s got lots of references under my name, or look on 123people.co.uk. Julia, the next book, proceeds apace. That should be ready next month. After that, another historical, an article for a Royal Society and maybe the start of an autobiography. Now that would be interesting for me. Been urged to write one and may very well do it. http://margaretbowker.yolasite.com

A new website and other interesting things

Well, I’ve got the new website up and running and it’s amazingly different from the old one. It’s  green and floral, but if you’ve come here from the website itself, you will know and if you haven’t, you can try http://margaretbowker.yolasite.com and have a look. It’s not finished yet, some text and new ideas to put in, but it’s getting there. It’s very bright and modern and I have various people to thank including Yola, Ron, and Billy of www.bklahrke.com design studio. So thanks everyone.

Is this a good sign I ask myself? Does a new vibrant website mean the coming year is going to be a better one for the writing project? I hope so, but interesting things are happening. For one thing, sites are starting to rent out the books for students, which means you don’t have to buy  and of course, it’s cheaper. Some unusual sites are selling the books, like Hammicks, the BMA book seller, and if it’s not an error, I’m pleased. I like to think my characters  explore the human condition.  And, another interesting thing, the books on Create Space, you may remember I was disappointed because they stayed strictly on Amazon, are being sold by other sites now. I don’t know whether Amazon have relaxed their policy or whether these sites like Abe books and bookrenter are buying the books and reselling them, but the prices are good.

Oh, it’s tempting to spend a little and get some advertising. I may purchase a domain name and see if that activates google a bit. The Interloper rewrite has gone off for the, ugh, hopefully, last proof copy  and should be released soon. I really like this version. It’s a good read and it’s going to be even better and you’ll be able to get it free in download from lulu.  I’m also working on Julia and that’s coming along well. Hope to have it out in November and I have another in the pipeline, which is very promising. So what with the projects, life can never be boring. One day in the not too far distant future, I shall consider writing an autobiography for a change of pace and genre. So goodbye for now and keep writing!

Updates on Website and Rewrite of The Interloper and New Book, Julia

Well, we’re working on the website and it’s going rather slowly; it was so badly affected it will all have to be done again and re-entered. Everything. The website had always been left alone on other occasions.  Anyway, when you’re doing two books as well as a new website, it’s bound to take time.  I lost the website, host, and then computer totally. I had to pull the  plug out of the socket in the end.  So head well below the parapet.

But the novels are going well. I’m nearly through the second version of  The Interloper, have the proof copy in front of me as I type. I think it’s much more immediate than it was and interestingly, The Interloper seems to be selling fairly actively, for my books, despite its alarming price. However, it does purport to be literature and that, in these modern days, attracts a premium, unless you are famous and mainstream are happy to take you. I get a thrill  when my books gradually edge down towards ten pounds. Two of them are there and one below, but that publisher does do deals with the main sellers.  The rewrite of Evenside goes from strength to strength, seems much more popular this time around. About fifty sites instead of ten or so on places like bookfinder4u.com. So that’s given me hope that The Interloper rewrite will take off as well.

Julia proceeds apace. I like it. It’s not my usual sort of novel, so that’s interesting in itself. The heroine is older than usual, but fear not, quite a bit under thirty and she’s repressed, not like my usual bouncy girls. But lots of fairly deep writing to get your teeth into; and remember, for those who are looking at the writing style and are nervous of the price, The Interloper new version will be available free on Lulu, who incidentally are now sending me notifications of my book sales. So the project moves on. As I said in a press release, it’ so small feat to try to get stuff inspired by Jane Austen around the world without paying someone to edit the book, do the cover and then print a large amount of copies, which one hopes to sell. That way of getting unusual work out takes thousands; and this project has a very small budget, and sometimes I nearly give in and spend a bit, but that was not the challenge. It was to push the publishing envelop as I said in a previous post and I’m not giving in. This admirable stubborness will not offend anybody, I trust, as it’s harmless enough and may eventually do a little something for literature. Well, bye for now, guys, my press releases and other blogs etc get lots of hits, thousands in fact, so thanks to all of you who are following this unique writing project.

Difficulties

I am having difficulties with my website and it’s down at the moment. The server also appears to be down and no indication when it’s going to be functioning again. I use a free server because there is no funding for the writing project and I have to keep expenses to a minimum. That was the idea anyway. Get a body of work inspired by Jane Austen around this modern world, but you can’t spend anything except for paper, cartridges, ISBN and book list. It’s been quite an ask as you may imagine. When David Lassman tried to submit Jane Austen’s actual work last year, he was rebuffed by nearly every publisher he tried. It hit the papers. So my project is ambitious and irritations like the website trouble – warned off by google – and it’s such a quiet informative site, but I do get problems from time to time. Never mind, press on. The rewrite of Evenside is getting attention. Bookfinder4u.com have 48 sellers on it now instead of a mere handful. The main problem with the novels is price and if anyone out can produce them more cheaply, without it costing me anything, then get in touch. Forgot you probably won’t see this as the website has vanished.

I have joined Twitter and other news

I have joined Twitter and made my first post. It’s quite simple even for a techophobe like me. I saw I had a Flickr link on my 123people.co.uk page, so I thought move on Margaret, it won’t bite you. Come on Gran, said my eldest grandson today, why don’t you twitter and I said it must be a sign. So I have and have three followers, whatever that means.

Unfortunately, not such encouraging news on the writing project front. Yes, I did opportune the American publisher I referred to in the last post, and at first they were interested, but alas, no sales figures forthcoming from Lulu; they didn’t even answer Pembury’s enquiry, so that was a non-starter. It’s a hard old life writing. However, I am stuck into revising my latest book, Julia, and that’s going well, so I shall send it around when it’s ready. I am really enjoying this one and hope you will. Evenside is revised and The Long Engagement is revised and out in paperback, and now I’m doing The Interloper, which is a fascinating book. If only it didn’t cost so much, but Play.com have The Long Engagement for a very reasonable amount and they are actually stocking it; also, sites in Hong Kong are stocking Farina House and Cruel Inheritance in larger numbers. and the books have now reached China. So the writng project moves on, even if I am a little disheartened. See you next time. I twitter under my own name.

Sorry I’ve taken so long to blog, but I had an excuse

I seem to have neglected my WordPress blog lately; not that I haven’t been posting. See the Telegraph and Google, but not here. There are only so many hours in a day etc; and I suddenly realised that I hadn’t done any literary stuff for a while. There is some excuse for this. For one thing, we had to redo Evenside and resend it, as its first page didn’t comply with new USA copywrite law. So that’s taken some time and we took the opportunity, Pembury Publishing and I, to rejig the cover a bit and polish up the text. I like it now and feel the text is more mature. It was my first attempt at a novel of any length back in the early Nineties and I was told off for writing it by a reader I had paid to give me a brief assessment. He said it was a thinly disguised version of Pride and Prejudice. So get a free look at it on Lulu and see if he was right. He may be slightly, but I think I got away with it.

The diversion with Evenside meant that the rewrite of The Long Engagement has become elongated if that’s not too cheeky a pun. But it’s nearly there and will be issued by Create Space shortly. I like that one too; and we had go at a new cover. The very latest novel, Julia, is set for this Autumn; and I shall push this one at unsuspecting publishers, maybe one in Chicago, just as many of you are probably doing. So I hope you have better luck than I seem to. Having said that, the literary writing project is creeping forward a little. The Telegraph and Guardian bookshops have some of my novels on their order list. Tesco is now selling three of them, I could never seem to get more than one on their list; and Bertrams, which was not involved in the demise of Woolworths, is printing two of the novels, and sending them out the next day. So it has given me a bit of hope. After all, my writing is just a project arising out of the Milton Keynes Arts Groups, and any progress is rewarding. Lobbying for other types of projects has more of an end result. We’re going to an opening of one next week, which will give us lots of pleasure to see it finished.

Thanks for clicking on my website, as some of you seem to do. I’ve had an offer from some professional graphic designers to give it a make over gratis and when I have a moment, I shall sit down with them and have a go. Happy writing. I’ll try to post more quickly next time.