Safkhet Publishing ~ Summer Reads

Wednesday 15 August 2012

Taking the Plunge ~ Carol E Wyer!


Today I have with me Author and Indie Book Award Medallist Carol E Wyer!




Chosen as Stafford FM Book Club Book of the Week!


Take it away, Carol!

I am honoured to be on Sheryl’s Blog today. Many thanks for letting me clutter up your place, Sheryl, and spend hours droning on about myself.  I hope I don’t frighten off your followers.


We all have things we have to face up to. My mother always told me that problems and fears would grow if you didn’t face up to them and as always, she was right.


I come across as a ‘gung ho’ sort of person and I certainly have had a jolly good old go at tackling challenges, both physical and mental. I’ve taken up all sorts of activities that make people say, “Wow! Aren’t you brave?” The fact of the matter is that I am not brave at all. I am just a woman on a mission, a mission to enjoy as much of life as I can, while I can. What you read next might surprise you because I am, after all a person who writes humour, is glib about almost everything and doesn’t seem to take life seriously.


When I was a young adult, just turned seventeen about to take my A levels, I had trouble with my back. The situation deteriorated rather rapidly and I found myself stuck in hospital for thirteen weeks on traction. I got to stay in bed for weeks, every teenager’s dream, with large weights suspended from my legs. I lost three stone, also every teenager’s dream but after undergoing major spinal surgery I came out feeble and with my spirit dampened.


I bounced back; after all I was only seventeen and I went on to University where unleashed for the first time I discovered freedom, fun, alcohol, boyfriends and intense back pain. (Not due to any activities with aforementioned alcohol or boyfriends.) I was admitted to hospital at the end of my first academic year for tests which involved enormous needles full of dye being injected directly into all of my discs. The reaction was terrifying. My back went into violent spasms. Consequently I was admitted to the emergency ward and worse still, I lost the use of my legs the morning after the procedure. I was paralysed. The discs in my spine had collapsed, my spine was weak and I would need further major surgery.


An operation was out of the question until they could ascertain why I could no longer walk. No one knew if I would regain the use of my legs. The surgeon and my parents sat in huddles at meetings while I lay on a trolley wishing my life could just end, there and then. My future was bleak. I was twenty years old and afraid.


I turned to writing at that time. I wrote about all the people I met in the hospital: the little old ladies smelling of lavender that had come in to have hip operations and who sat by my bedside telling me stories about their lives, each one with twinkling eyes and an optimistic attitude.  I wrote about daily events in the hospital, about getting a cold bed pan bath at five in the morning from two giggling nurses dressed as rabbits who thought it would be a “bit of fun” and about one of the more grumpy of the patients wheeled outside into the corridor late at night because they snored so loudly they were keeping the ward awake. I wrote about the amusing characters on the ward. There were plenty of them. I wrote about the funny side of working in a hospital with episodes such as the man who was admitted with a Hoover attachment stuck to a certain appendage and other funny incidents regaled to me by the nurses. Over the following weeks much like if you lose your sight, your hearing intensifies, so in the face of bleakness, I developed a crazy sense of humour about it all.


After a while I was sent home. Baffled surgeons still couldn’t work out why I had no use of my legs and decided to leave nature to take its course for a while. That night I decided I had a choice. I could mope about being miserable or I could try and take charge of my life and health. When my parents went off to work that morning I tried to get out of the bed. Even though I am a writer I cannot convey in words how difficult it was for me to move. The pain in my back was excruciating but worse than that was the fact that I couldn’t get my mind to will my legs to move. There is a saying that “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger”.  I persevered. Every half an hour I tried again. I even tried every hour when my parents were asleep at night.


Without dragging out the story, it took a further gruelling week but eventually I could pull myself out of the bed and stand for a short time.  A couple of days later I told my father that I thought I could attempt a few steps to the landing if he helped me. The look on his face was worth every ounce of effort.







I gradually got better. I had the all important operation and my spine was fused together to prevent further problems. I promised myself that when I was recovered I was going to milk every drop out of this life I’d been given and that is why to this day I take up opportunities and challenges.

  
  


I am not brave. I was lucky enough to have been given a second chance. I continue to spend it enjoying life but also encouraging others to appreciate theirs too.





Never be too serious. There is always something to make you smile. Laughter and optimism have seen me through most of the dark times and I live by the mantra “he who laughs...lasts!”



Surfing in Stilettos
Due for release: 16th August 2012.
Available from: FeedARead, all good bookshops and Amazon


Mini Skirts and Laughter Lines
Available in paperback and Kindle format
Amazon.co.uk (buy): Amazon UK
Amazon.com (buy): Amazon US
Also available in eBook format from: Smashwords



Author website: http://www.carolewyer.co.uk
Facebook Page: Carol E Wyer
Twitter: @carolewyer

Saturday 11 August 2012

Taking the Plunge ~ Owen Carey Jones!



Today I have with me multi-talened Film Director and Author of Rough Cut, Owen Carey Jones!  All I have to say by way of introduction is, WOW! Take it away, Owen!


One of my external tutors at film school was David Nobbs of The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin fame. Remember him? In 2000, at the ripe old age of 50 and after two years of having my screenplays generally rubbished by the staff (OK, I admit they weren’t perfect! The screenplays, that is, not the staff!), I was coming to the end of my course and as my last piece, I had decided to write the first episode of a three part TV drama.
At outline stage, I had a meeting with David and he told me that he thought it was good (what! You cannot be serious, I thought!). Not only that, he went on to say that he thought it had the potential to be made into a powerful and moving drama! Wowee!!
A few months later, the screenplay was finished and I sent it to my other external tutor, a chap called Rod Graham who had previously been Head of Drama at BBC Scotland for 10 years. Needless to say, despite David’s kind comments, I was expecting Rod to go through a long list of what was wrong with the screenplay I had written. I went into the room and sat down. I saw my script on the table next to him and grimaced inside. After the pleasantries were over, he said, and I quote: “I’ve got nothing to say about this script.” Oh dear, thought I, that bad, is it? He continued, “If I were still with the BBC, this would now be in the Production Department awaiting a budget.” I nearly fell off my chair with excitement! He actually liked it! “You’ve made my day,” I said, “In fact you’ve made my year!” He looked me in the eye and said “No! The cheque will do that!”

Well, you can imagine that I was walking on air as I came out of that meeting. A little while later, I completed my course and graduated with an MA in Screenwriting (Fiction). I immediately went on the attack and sent my drama series idea and script to every TV drama production company I could find, including the BBC and ITV. And I got a snowstorm of rejections. When I thought about it sensibly, I realised the reality of the situation. Here was I, an unknown writer with nothing that had ever been produced to my name. Why would anyone want to risk hundreds of thousands of pounds to make the TV drama series I had written when they had scripts from the likes of Lynda La Plante coming out of their ears? 

A little while after that, I was sitting at home wondering what next? And suddenly it dawned on me! Do it yourself! 


Why not? I thought about it some more and concluded that if everyone, cast and crew, were prepared to work for nothing, I could probably make a feature film out of it for maybe £10,000 or thereabouts. I had, myself, worked on a couple of similar projects, although neither of them had ever been completed so I knew it was possible. That day I made a decision to rewrite the screenplay as a full length (90 minutes) feature film screenplay and produce it, direct it and edit it myself. I discussed the idea with my wife and she had no objections, in fact she was very much for the idea.

That day, I went for a walk around Yeadon Dam, as I did every day. But on that day, as I walked past the ducks swimming in the water, I said to myself “You’re going to be a film director!” A huge smile broke out all over my face - I think the other people round the dam must have thought I must be a bit simple, wandering around with this huge grin on my face for no apparent reason.

After that, a couple of years passed during which I hired a cast and crew, shot and edited the film and eventually managed to persuade EMI and Warner Music to sell me a licence to use two Enya songs to open and close the film, but only following intervention on my behalf by Nicky Ryan, Enya’s manager, after I had rung him in the hope of getting his help! I screened the finished film at MIFED which was a leading international film market and at the American film market in Santa Monica and it was eventually sold for broadcast on television in countries on four continents including the USA and China, where it was screened three times at prime time on China Central Television (after they had dubbed it into Chinese, of course!). To date, the film has been seen by over 40 million people. Including the Enya licences, it cost me £22,000 to make BABY BLUES, plus a few thousand more to take it to the film markets. Was it worth Taking the Plunge and spending all that the time and money and effort to make my first feature film? You tell me!


Owen at the Belize Film Festival ~ on the Panel of Directors!

 
Author website Carey Films: www.careyfilms.com
Rough Cut website: http://www.roughcut-thenovel.com
Author blog - Living with a creative mind: www.lwacm.blogspot.com
Facebook page: Owen Carey Jones
Rough Cut The Novel FB page: http://www.facebook.com/roughcut.thenovel
Twitter A/c @owencareyjones: https://twitter.com/#!/owencareyjones
Amazon.co.uk (buy): http://amzn.to/x23HnD
Amazon.com (buy): http://amzn.to/xrRb6o




Wednesday 8 August 2012

Festival of Romance Aims to Uncover New Talent!



The Festival of Romance 2012 promises to be a FABulous affair!


Here’s a little taster of what’s on offer:


Friday 16 November

Festival of Romance Awards and Ball: Gala Award Presentation! Good food, fine wine ~ and dancing the night away!

Saturday 17 November

Creative Writing Workshops!

Romance Fair: Gifts, books, authors, cooking, chocolate, Regency soldiers and lots of fun!

Romance & Shopping: Listen to the Romance Readathon!

Meet the Authors Coffee & Cake (Morning) & Rock Star Party (Evening): Listen to readings from uber-talented authors!

Literary Dinner (special guests, Jane Lovering and Jane Wenham-Jones)!

Total E-Bound Erotic party.

Sunday 18 November

Pitch Your Novel.

Romantic Fiction Conference.

Meet the Author Historical Afternoon Tea: Enjoy a traditional afternoon tea with scones and cakes, and more author readings!

I’ll be there ~ everywhere! ~ along with Mandy Baggot, Nicky Wells, Sue Fortin and Emma Calin, representing Loveahappyending.



Now for another exciting bit of news ~ New Talent Award aims to uncover romantic fiction authors of the future!!


The Festival of Romance is delighted to announce that the New Talent Award will run again this year. The industry judges are Georgina Hawtrey-Woore senior editor at Cornerstones, Random House and Diane Banks, literary agent at the Diane Banks Associates Literary Agency.

The Festival of Romance New Talent Award aims to cast a spotlight on the authors of tomorrow and is open to all writers who have not yet had a book commercially published. Writers may submit the opening chapter (up to 3,500 words) of a romantic novel of any type by 30th September 2012. The winner and runners-up will be announced and presented with trophies at the gala Festival of Romance Awards on Friday 16thNovember 2012. There is a small entry fee to cover the award administration. Entrants may also gain a critique of their entry written by a professional novelist.

“As part of the Festival of Romance we want to help new writers with talent get their break into the commercial fiction world,” says Kate Allan, chief romantic at the Festival of Romance. “At the Festival of Romance in November we are running writing workshops, an industry conference and chance to meet publishers face to face as well as the New Talent Award. I'm delighted that Georgina Hawtrey-Woore and Diane Banks have agreed to judge this year's entries.”

Winner of the 2011 New Talent Award Henriette Gyland subsequently garnered a book deal from publishers Choc Lit. Her debut novel Up Close will be published in December 2012.

For more details about how to enter the New Talent Award please see www.festivalofromance.co.uk


Could you be a future romantic fiction author?


Happy writing!

Friday 3 August 2012

Guest Post ~ Author Richard Holmes


Today I have the pleasure of hosting the multi-talented Richard Homes, on my blog.  As well as being a medium and clairvoyant, Richard is also the author of spiritual books and producer of meditation CD’s that have helped to change the lives of many people from all walks of life. Find out more about more about Richard’s enlightening Angelic Wisdom Trilogy below:


This wonderful trilogy of angelic insights started life back in 2002, and was originally three separate volumes. It is a delightful piece of work that allows the reader to take a peek into the very souls of these truly amazing celestial beings that we like to refer to as angels. The first part of the book goes into great detail as to how the angels function and what they actually do for the Earth and mankind in general. Part two gives a deep insight into spiritual (natural) law and answers the kind of questions that tend to keep the average mere mortal frustrated and in the dark. For example, have you ever wondered why you continuously seem to attract the same kinds of people into your life that always cause you hurt and pain? This question and many more are dealt with within the pages of part two. There are also question and answer sessions in parts one and two, between the author and his celestial guardian, that are both thought provoking and interesting to say the least. Finally, part three consists entirely of such a session and deals with matters that the author felt remained unanswered from the previous two volumes. This book will change your life; you can’t afford NOT to read it.

The Angelic Wisdom Trilogy is FREE on Kindle
3 to 5 August.
Get your copy now!

Extract

Intention is probably the most important thing in any thought, feeling or deed that you conceive, in that it is the intention behind the thought, feeling or deed that determines the outcome. The outcome in this case meaning the level of cause and effect. There have been many deeds carried out with good intentions that have not yielded desirable results. However, this does not necessarily mean that the perpetrators have acquired a degree of negative karma by their actions. It is what is in your heart that counts.

Your intentions count for everything, and this is a very important truth to grasp for all those who seek a pathway of light. Once you conceive a thought there is a simultaneous interaction between the mind and the heart. In this minute moment in time, your intentions behind the thought are determined. Remember, we have spoken previously about today’s thoughts being tomorrow’s reality. As soon as the thought is conceived it goes out into the ether and will manifest itself at some stage or other. This means that if you have a thought based on good intentions, but for various reasons forget to carry out the actions behind the thought, there is every chance that the manifestation of the good actions will take place anyway. For example, if you know of someone who is under the weather and needs healing, it may be your intention, via your thoughts, to send this person absent healing (please see the section on healing for an explanation of this). If you then forget it won’t matter because the thought has already gone out into the ether. Your angels in the higher spiritual realms will pick up on this and act in accordance with your thoughts.

Everything is created by the thoughts of man. Humans create all situations for themselves by the power of their thoughts. Life on the Earth plane is most definitely an illusion, but the actions of humans are the product of previous thoughts, which in turn became feelings and then actions. Today’s thoughts create tomorrow’s life; we have stated this on many previous occasions. Humans are slaves to their own thoughts. The human mind will “steal” your happiness and create for you unhappiness based on illusion. By the same token humans can also experience joy whilst on Earth. The thing to remember is that matter is constantly in motion and is driven by the thoughts of humankind. It’s like a child having a piece of plasticine and constantly creating different objects from the same piece. The plasticine itself will always remain the same but the object created will always be in accordance with the child’s imagination. This is the illusion. Everything on the Earth plane is comprised of matter, which is concentrated energy. The energy will always be constant, but the scenarios of people’s lives will always be a product of their thoughts. Thoughts are very confusing and changeable; therefore the illusion will change too. This is why some people appear to go from disaster to disaster throughout their lives.

About the author

I am a medium and clairvoyant and also the author of spiritual books and producer of meditation CD’s that have helped to change the lives of many people from all walks of life. Only 12 years ago I was still struggling with an alcohol problem that was threatening to take my life in a very negative direction from which there would have been no return. These days I use the same principles that enabled me to turn my life around and apply them to my client’s individual needs. I help people replace the old negative mindsets, that keep them rooted in the past, with new positive thoughts and attitudes that enable them to get what they dream about having and being in their lives. By drawing on my own life experience I help people to grow and realise their true worth and potential; helping them to express themselves in ways that make them feel happy and fulfilled. People contact me when they are at a crossroads in their lives or when they feel they are stuck in a particular negative situation. It may also be because they are experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one or they may simply be in search of some guidance of a spiritual nature. Whatever the reason, I always aim to make people feel at ease so that they can enjoy the experience. I also help people to realise the gifts of clairvoyance, mediumship and healing that are present within themselves. This can be on a one-to-one or group basis and is achieved through guided meditation and other methods of inner work