Cheryl's 'By the Letter' - with your thank you gift


A thank you gift for you - Author C D'Angelo and the Titanic - New! A Children's History of the Forest of Dean	View in browser

Welcome (back)!

It's great to see you here for By the Letter August 2021 and thank you for reading. Lots going on, just for a change.

THE NEWS

A gift for you

Here it is! My new slim collection, Dragon Gift, for you to enjoy. Others are - the reviews are great, with some firm favourites emerging (among dog lovers especially). Most of these stories are also suitable for kids, but I'll let you be the judge of which ones. (Cinders is, for sure.) And if you enjoy it, please leave a review on Amazon here or Goodreads here.

This is the key link. It takes you to a web page where you can download the ebook for kindle, other devices or a pdf.

(Please note this page will expire in mid-September.)

Other writing news ...

Over the moon to have my story Carriers of Grief highly commended in the Gloucestershire Writers Network annual short story competition. It will be published in their anthology - I'll make sure you know about it!

The free offer of Guardians trilogy was well received. Thank you to those who have since left ratings (all 5 stars). I'm still trying to finish the draft of the prequel, The High Alps of Asfarlon, but very excited by the new plot line which emerged - Guardians fans will love it. The (non-final) opening chapter is below, to whet appetites.

Sammy, as usual, is upstaging me as an author. My good friend Lily Lawson interviewed him about his book, Sammy's Walks, for her July newsletter. He was thrilled to be asked. A world first, and exclusive. Here's the newsletter with Sammy's interview, thank you, Lily.

And here's the link to my books page with all the buying, and reviewing, options for everything, including Sammy's Walks.

The importance of reviews

As an author friend pointed out recently, us indie authors don't have the marketing might of publishing companies to let the world know about our books. Hence we get very excited when readers leave reviews, tell others what great stories we write, lend their copy out and so on. Thank you for doing this!

Out there at last!

A children's history of the Forest of Dean

Many of you know I've been carrying on about this project for literally two years. Now at last it's out there. Written by well known children's author, Andy Seed, and designed by the amazing Sarah Fountain, this book was funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund through our local Foresters Forest project and sponsored by the FoD Local History Society. Each primary school here now has their ten free copies - a pleasure for several of us to drive around delivering them the last week of term. Libraries also have copies.

Not just for kids! Adults love them too. Available locally, or email me for online buying options.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - C. D'Angelo

C D'Angelo released her debut novel, The Difference, in July and I was very happy to be asked to be an 'ahead' reviewer. In our interview this month she talks about how the book came about, how her professional life helps her writing, and her obsession with The Titanic, which plays its own role in the book.

Go here to read all about it.

And here to find The Difference.

WRITERS ARE READERS TOO

Redhead by the side of the road - Anne Tyler

I hadn't read any Anne Tyler before and picked this up on a whim. Very glad I did, and I'll be reading more of her work. If you like character driven novels, well written and paced (sounds like Keepers) then this author, or at least this book, is for you.

Read my thoughts here.

Extract ...

The High Alps of Asfarlon

The story is set centuries before Guardians at the time the Sleih and the Gryphon live together in the caverns of Asfarlon, learning magic from each other.

The extract is the opening chapter of the book.

Extract

WRITER'S CORNER

Keeping strictly to one character's point of view (or POV in the jargon) in any one scene is hammered into us as new writers. But there's more to it than simply ensuring we don't 'head hop'. If you want your reader to get inside a character's head, Deep POV is what you're after. Get rid of all those 'he saw', 'she heard' and 'he thought'/'he wondered' and let your reader live the character for an immersive experience.

Take a look at this blog post to see what I'm talking about.

COMING UP

Something a little different in my guest spot for September. And I'll be reporting back on my Summer Reading Challenge experiences at local libraries.

If you're a new subscriber, you can catch up on past issues of By the Letter here. And please feel free to forward the newsletter and the website link to friends you think might be interested.

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Thank you for reading!

Cheryl

Cheryl Burman

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