Bloggers Bash Tickets are Now on Sale!

THE ANNUAL BLOGGERS BASH – STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW

Under ordinary circumstances, I would post this myself, but as the voice speaking here is so very clearly Geoff’s, I thought it only fair to share it this way. Enjoy people – and if you haven’t done anything about booking tickets for the Bloggers Bash, here’s one of your few remaining chances (it’s less than three weeks away now!).

Five on Friday with Graeme Cumming @GraemeCumming63

Jill's Book Cafe

I’m delighted today to feature Graeme Cumming, who I had the pleasure of chatting to at the Theakston Crime Festival this summer. His book Ravens Gathering has been sat on my Kindle patiently waiting for far too long – I will remedy that Graeme.

Author Bio:-

Graeme Cumming lives in Robin Hood country, and has spent most of his life immersed in fiction – books, TV, movies – turning to writing his own during his early teens.

With his interests in story-telling sparked by an excessive amount of time sitting in front of a black and white television, his tastes are varied.  Influences ranged from the Irwin Allen shows (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, etc.) to ITC series (The Saint, The Champions, Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) and so many more), so the common theme was action and adventure, but crossed into…

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The Bloggers Bash 2018

The momentum is building. And talking of buildings…

Author Spotlight; Graeme Cumming

It’s always nice to get feedback when someone’s read your book. What Gary did here was take a lot more time and added a whole lot extra. Not only that, there are some very positive comments here, which is largely an indication of how good Gary’s post is – but obviously reflects how good Ravens Gathering is as well!

Fiction is Food

As the ravens gather and darkness descends, the time is drawing near for history to repeat itself… Ravens Gathering is a gripping thriller, interwoven with horror and fantasy, that demonstrates how you should never take things at face value.

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Boost Your Following with the Bloggers Bash Twitter Chat!

If you didn’t get the memo (and I didn’t send one, so if you got one you’d better let me know), I’m now on the Bloggers Bash Committee. Admittedly, it was a moment of madness at the end of this year’s Bash when I approached Sacha to volunteer. Clearly, I was caught up in the euphoria of having attended my third Bash – all three of which have had a positive effect on my life to one degree or another. Anyway, in this esteemed role, I do get advance information of certain happenings, and it seems only fair that I share it with all fellow bloggers. It’s short notice in this case, but I strongly recommend reading this post from Suzie about an event occurring tonight.

Author Spotlight; Shelley Wilson

I haven’t read Shelley’s new book yet, but the feedback I’m seeing suggests it’s her best yet. Having read Guardian of the Dead, I can only assume Oath Breaker is brilliant!
Here’s a little more to whet the appetite…

Fiction is Food

A dead mother… A violent father… A missing brother… Will she follow the pack or destroy them?

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Must Be Something in the Water…

I was reading about Susie Lindau’s experience with yesterday’s eclipse (https://susielindau.com/2017/08/21/viewing-the-eclipse-by-looking-down/), and it reminded me of this blog post I shared a couple of years ago. There are some strange things in this world…

graemecummingdotnet

Don’t know if you heard, but we had a solar eclipse here in the UK recently.  Perhaps understandably, the focus for most people is on the spectacle it creates as the Moon edges across the face of the Sun.  But there’s more to it than that.

The 1999 eclipse occurred during the school summer holidays, and the best view was expected in Cornwall.  So, as a young family, we decided to go and experience this for ourselves.

There’s actually a very rambling story behind the road trip we took over a few days to get there, but I won’t inflict it on you here.  It’s sufficient to say that we set off very early in the morning from a point much closer to Cornwall than home.

We didn’t have a set destination in mind.  The plan was simply to get into the right county and find somewhere to watch it.  Unfortunately, by the time we were half way through Devon, the traffic was…

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Ravens Gathering by Graeme Cumming #BookReview @GraemeCumming63

I haven’t been very active on my blog recently, but that will change again soon (I know you’re desperate to devour my thoughts, words and memories…). In the mean time, it would be criminally remiss of me to not share this latest review of Ravens Gathering. Jo Robertson has timed this brilliantly, as yesterday was my last day in proper employment. From today, I focus solely on writing, and this seems like a good way to start the next phase of my life…

mychestnutreadingtree

About this book…

As she let her gaze drift around her, she saw that there were more birds. Perhaps a dozen or so, perched among the trees that stood on the edge of the clearing. And yet more were arriving, swooping down through the gap overhead and landing on branches that overlooked them. The birds weren’t threatening, yet the sight of them all coming together in this dark and isolated spot was unnerving. Tanya reached a hand out towards Martin, and was relieved to feel him take it. She felt him move in behind her. After the uncertainty she’d experienced with him in a similar position only a few moments ago, she recognised the irony of her reaction. His closeness offered security.
“You know what they are, don’t you?”

A stranger’s arrival in a small village coincides with a tragic accident. For the Gates family in particular it’s more than…

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Guest author: Graeme Cumming – Self help in writing

I was delighted to be invited recently to share some thoughts on Sue Vincent’s blog. Sue herself has plenty to say on a range of subjects, all with a lot of thought attached to them. If you haven’t come across her yet, I’d encourage you to go take a look.
For now, though, here’s the outcome of my own stream of consciousness…

Sue Vincent's Daily Echo

Photo: Sue Vincent

When I wrote Ravens Gathering, I knew it needed plotting carefully. There were several twists in it, and garden paths needed laying for the reader to be led up – difficult to do if you start with no real sense of direction.

So I decamped to Spain for a week and spent each morning on a balcony with a sea view in front of me and mountains either side. There are worse places to sit with a pen and A4 pad.

Over the course of that week, I wrote the outline. I started by writing out the events in chronological order, giving me a timeline. But, of course, that’s not the order you reveal things in. I also had to bear in mind that, although some of the events took place over decades, the core story needed telling over a few days. So it was like…

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