Cheryl's 'By the Letter'


Sabrina, goddess - Jo Durrant interview - RS Jonesee guest author - Is your novel too short?	View in browser

Welcome (back)!

June, and theoretically summer in the northern hemisphere. While the weather remains 'English' summer, the hedgerows and verges are doing the right thing, as you can see from the above. Love it! It's the dream of my River Witch protagonist Hester, to be skilled in the healing wisdom of field and forest, and we have a bountiful learning environment here in the Forest.

THE NEWS

A sad note to begin, and many of you know already, but our precious border collie, Sammy, passed on 23 May. It was very peaceful, and this week we scattered his ashes in the Forest he had known all his life. Sammy was, of course, an author too, and his book Sammy's Walks is a wonderful legacy. I've uploaded some more images to his web page, together with an interview my friend Lily Lawson did with Sam last year.

Jo Durrant's Beautiful Universe

The brilliant Jo Durrant interviewed me for her podcast, Jo Durrant's Beautiful Universe. Love being interviewed by Jo, she's so relaxed and relaxing and her editing is fantastic, thank goodness! Listen here.

River Witch update

I've completed my edits of River Witch to this point and the manuscript is now with those wonderful people called 'beta' readers to tell me what's right and wrong with it. No fingernail chewing here, ha!
Many thanks to those who have pre-ordered the eBook. (Clicking on the book cover below will get you there if you haven't already done so.) For the paperback fans, I'm on track for 9 September release.

Captive damsels, jealous wives, and river nymphs

Sabrina, goddess

‘You and I are not ordinary folk, little mistress. We are wise. We call the river by her goddess name, Sabrina.’

As the river is a key character in River Witch, I thought I would share the story of why the river we know as the Severn was called Sabrina by the Romans, and how it came by its goddess status. Click on the button to find out.

Sabrina, goddess

A new bookshop for the Forest!

While the Forest of Dean is well served with libraries, both county and community, we lost our one and only bookshop several years ago. So it's thrilling that someone has taken up the challenge to give us a new one. Forest Books and Crafts will open in July and will offer a range of books, games and crafts. If you're local, please support it! Tina, the owner, will order in for you. Local authors are featured and when I went to visit the shop recently at Tina's invite, I was thrilled to see I had my own shelf - between Tolkien and Andrew Taylor. Quite appropriate!
Here's their FaceBook page, please like it and follow!

Guest author

RS Jonesee

RS Jonesee is a sucker for a good love story, so decided to write her own. I confess that normally I'm not a huge romcom fan, but Rebecca's books draw me in with their very human characters and their very real problems. Plus her settings on the tropical Postscript Island are fantastic - a holiday without leaving the sofa!
It’s wonderful to welcome her as my June guest author. Click on the image below to take you there.

WRITERS ARE READERS TOO

STILL LIFE Sarah Winman

Suffice to say I've bought a second Sarah Winman. Read why here.

WRITER'S CORNER

Not a problem I have, but it appears some authors feel their books aren't long enough for their genre. It may or may not be something you need to fix, but if you have epic fantasy at 50k words, it likely is.

I went exploring to see what might help, and came up with useful ideas which can also be helpful for those of us who write too long.

Click the button to read what I found out.

Is your novel too short?

COMING UP

My report on a visit towards the end of this month to a local group where I've been given an hour to talk about my books. And they don't even know me - yet! Plus an interview with an award winning author who is also an artist in his spare time, of which he has little. Look forward to having you back.

Cheryl

PS: If this email was forwarded to you and you would like to sign up for my newsletter, you can do so here, and download your free copy of Dragon Gift.

Do you like By the Letter? Feel free to share it!

Cheryl Burman

Forest of Dean
United Kingdom

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