If you’ve missed taking parting my Book Cover Design Challenge, you can still see the seven covers by clicking here.Even if you did receive one of the one hundred and fifty five I.D. numbers that I sent out to each entrant, you might want to remind yourself of the other pictures.

This afternoon I spent a happy couple of hours in Hudson’s Coffee House in the middle of Birmingham, drinking hot chocolate and chatting with a group of Bookcrossers. Because five of those I.D. numbers were going to be randomly selected, I wanted to make sure that all the entrants would know that everything had been conducted in a fair and proper manner,
so five of the group each drew one number out of the nice warm hat I’d been wearing:

From left to right: Matth3w, LyzzyBee, Heaven-Ali, Paraglider(that’s me!) Megmac and Nordie. (the little strips of paper they are all holding are the winning ID numbers)

With a big THANK YOU to Beckydore for volunteering to take this photo!

The winners (who will receive a free copy of Paper Lanterns as soon as it’s ready in a few weeks’ time) are:

ID no.16, Marilyn Ricci from Soundswrite, Leicester poetry group)

ID no. 27, Giles Osborne (from Cannon Poets, where I first ‘came out’ as a poet)

ID no. 51, Helena Brooke Carter (a friend from our long-ago school days)

ID no. 66, John Payne (latest book: The West Country: a cultural history )

ID no. 153, Sarah Jakeman, a gifted novelist and friend

When I set up this challenge, I didn’t want to ask people to vote for their own favourite, because I already knew which one I was going to use. Therefore, the only fair question seemed to be, ‘Which cover do you think that the author likes best?’

As an after thought, I added (truthfully) that I’d also be interested in hearing their views. Although I also said, ‘I might need to think again if enough people choose a different version!’ it honestly hadn’t entered my head that I might have to do just that!

Although I was delighted by the quality and thoughtfulness of the responses, I was becoming increasingly uneasy with each new entry – the cover which I had liked the least was leading the field from the start with seven out of the first ten entries.

I tried to convince myself that this would change as more entries came through, and I clung to that hope while 17 out of 30, then 22 out of 40, 26 of 50 and 32 of 60 consistently followed that preference. By the time the 100th came through, and 56 people had selected that same one, I knew I had to take notice of what was being said.

‘It’s your book, you should use the one you want,’ my friends said, but my brain doesn’t work like that. I can start off by being very clear about my own opinions on all sorts of things, but when I’m presented with other views on the matter, I look more closely at the basis for my decision in the first place and try to weigh up the various pros and cons.

In this particular case, one of the things I hadn’t fully considered was the importance of the instant impact: one of the main purposes of the front cover of a novel is to attract the attention of the viewer - either in the bookshop, where they’ll pick up the book itself, turn it over, read the blurb and the first page, or on-line, where they might scroll down for more information, and maybe click on Paypal, and add it to their basket.

I’ll be posting more soon about the different choices and comments, and why I had to change my mind, but didn’t mind it.

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUTSutton Park, and ‘Each Year I Forget’,
Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE

and give yourself a LAST CHANCE of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Where the Wild Things Are (and Paypal at last),
Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE

and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

I’ve had a lovely Boxing Day with my kind, techie son (back home for Christmas)

First off, he’s patiently helped me work out the best way to install Paypal on this site. That might not sound like much, but I kept on changing my mind about exactly what system I’d need in order to make things easy for anyone who wants to buy my books.

We’ve finally settled for a ‘UK’ and ‘Rest of the World’ option. The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society is the only one displayed here for the time being, but Paper Lanterns will be available here in a few weeks’ time.

For anyone buying in the UK, not only will there be £2.00 off the original price, but postage and packing will be free.

For anyone outside the UK, the book will be full price, but there will be no charge for postage and packing!

As soon as the cover design for Paper Lanterns has been selected* all the files will be sent to the printer, and once the actual paperback books are ready, they’ll be available here in the same way.

*Since the Bookcrossers are such staunch supporters, I’ll be asking some of them to draw the five winning ID numbers on Saturday 2nd January – watch this space for the results!
Our afternoon walk through sunlit woodland in Cannock Chase was followed, at the insistence of my adult son, by a trip to the local Multiplex to see what I thought would be a typically cosy family Christmas film, Where the Wild Things Are.

I was happy to go along with this suggestion, especially as our long-ago roles were reversed, and he was buying the tickets. (Though I couldn’t help thinking that it seemed rather a strange choice for a sophisticated man-about-town!) But it wasn’t long before I saw why.

The Wild Things were wonderful - dream-like and utterly convincing in their depiction of human emotions and behaviours, both of small children, and on another level, of supposedly mature adults. As this review suggests, it seems to have been made more for adults, than for small children.

If you’ve seen it, I’d love to hear your views!

Oh, and another new thing you’ll notice is the Twitter link, thanks to my son.

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Looping the Loop with Free Harmony, Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE

and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

I’ve just experienced the weird (but rather nice) sensation of hearing my voice coming at me from my computer screen, and suddenly I’m back in the headquarters of Radio Wildfire, being interviewed by the presenter, Dave Reeves. I’m reading an extract from The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, the part where Agnes Borrowdale, (‘75 years old, a week on Tuesday’) prevents Felix from throwing himself under a high speed train on New Street Station.

I shared the ‘live’ part of the broadcast, on Monday 7th December, with Adrian Johnson, the current Birmingham Poet Laureate, but although I had the pleasure of hearing him recite his poems, I wasn’t able to listen to myself and hear how I’d have sounded to the fans of Radio Wildfire, so it was a relief to find that I didn’t make a complete prat of myself (in spite of some hesitation and stumbling over a few words.)

I’m quite used to talking about my first novel, but this was the first time I’d been interviewed about Paper Lanterns so it took a bit longer to collect my thoughts. I have to say that I was enthralled just now when I was listening to two of the real-life love letters from China in the 1920s that inspired one of the main story threads in the novel. (I’ll post more information about these letters soon.)

Meanwhile, if you want to hear more of this broadcast, it’s now available here on the Loop.

The Loop is a non stop (24/7)transmission between the live monthly broadcasts, and it’s just been updated today, 23rd December. Once you’ve got the hang of how this works, it’s very easy to follow, especially as Dave has listed what you can expect to hear on each of the 12 tracks. If you miss anything, all you need to do is wait till it comes round again – (a bit like those baggage carousels at airports when you fail to recognise your own suitcase before it’s swallowed up by those dangling bits of rubber - but waiting on Radio Wildfire is a good deal more entertaining than watching the sluggish progress of other people’s luggage!)

So here’s the programme, and it’s part of the fun to identify which track you’ve landed on. It’s all good stuff, but make sure you listen out for tracks 6 and 9!

Tracks 1-3
Adrian Johnson Birmingham Poet Laureate reads…
All the Jam
Happy Birthday Brummie Floozy
Birmingham’s What?

Tracks 4-6
Office Party Roz Goddard (live)
Thank you letter Xmas 1969 (2008) Brendan Hawthorne with Nigel Self
Christine Coleman reads from The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society

Tracks 7-9
Twelve Days of Christmas, a story by Susan Hulse
A Poor Man’s Excuse Dave Reeves (live)
Christine Coleman talks about her forthcoming novel, Paper Lanterns

Tracks 10-12
Adrian Johnson talking about the National Storytelling Laureate and reading the poem Deep Mercia
Christmas Do Geoff Stevens
Let Your Little Light Shine (Trad spiritual) Free Harmony*

(* I liked this so much that I ordered the CD of Free Harmony from Chris Hoskin’s website (a bargain at £8.00)

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Paraglider’s Three Times Lucky December,Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

DECEMBER HAS BEEN A LUCKY MONTH FOR ME, SO FAR
1) I was invited to take part in a live broadcast on Radio Wildfire to talk about my novels, The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, and the soon-to-be-published Paper Lanterns.

2) I received a lovely recommendation for the back cover of Paper Lanterns from prize-winning author, Linda Gillard . She is writer of uncompromisingly high calibre and her third novel, Star Gazing, was shortlisted for Romantic Novel of the Year 2009.

I have great respect for her judgement on literary matters, so I’m delighted that she enjoyed my novel enough to name it in the same breath as the two novelists she mentions below:

“A vivid and absorbing tale of family secrets and illicit love, observed with the keen eye of a poet. You can almost smell and taste Hong Kong. Recommended for fans of Margaret Forster and Penelope Lively.“

3) I’ve just had an article published in the Bookcrossers’ monthly newsletter. You can read it here, and see why I think that all authors should love Bookcrossers.

It’s exciting enough to think that some of the 829,653 members from all around the world might read my article, but on top of that I’ve been awarded a month’s free membership of ‘Members Plus’, and this means that my Bookcrossing name, paraglider will now display wings for the next few weeks. (It does bring other privileges, but I might not have time to take advantage of these.) Still, I feel very proud when I click on my Bookcrossing name and see those wings - the nearest I’ll ever get to being angelic!

BEFORE YOU READ ABOUT Radio Wildfire Live, Click here for my BOOK COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE and give yourself the chance of winning a FREE copy of Paper Lanterns(CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

I’ve been so busy replying to the numerous kind people who entered, that that this is the first new post for a couple of weeks

One of the many nice things about the Writers’ Conference I attended a couple of weeks ago, was the chance of catching up with former writing friends and making new ones. The only other Writing Conference I’d attended was a residential weekend in Winchester in June 2008. It was inspiring, informative and great fun, and it made me wonder why there was never anything like that in Birmingham. (Even the East Midlands seemed to have more going on for writers then those of us in the West)

That is, until Jonathan Davidson puts things right with his Writers’ Toolkit. James Walker, a writer from East Mids, has written an excellent report of that day – I’ve just spent time I haven’t really got to spare, browsing his own site. But then again, he’s saved me some of that time by expressing a lot of what I’d intended to say myself.

So now I can skip that and get to Dave Reeves, director and programmer of Radio Wildfire,a spoken word radio station that streams content 24 hours a day over the internet. It’s the LIVE transmission that is the really exciting part for me, as Dave has invited me to take part in this TOMORROW, Monday 7th December, between 8.00 and 10.00 pm UK time.

Dave has a great way with words – I’d sent him a few short paragraphs about my writing life, and here’s how he introduces his Monday evening guests: “A Laureate, a Plinther, and a mountain climbing Guinness drinker.” (that last phrase is the way he’s chosen to present me – it’s made me quite nostalgic for those far off days in Dublin)

The Laureate and Plinther is Adrian Johnson, “the current Birmingham Poet Laureate and a man with an enthusiasm for storytelling… Earlier this year he became a ‘plinther’ in Trafalgar Square, standing in the sunshine at 3pm on a Saturday - almost exactly 20 years from when the Poll Tax riot erupted on 31 March 1990.” He’s a great performer of his own poems, and from this YouTube video,it looks as though it’ll be a lively evening.

Here’s the more serious part of what Dave has written about me: “Christine Coleman’s first novel The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society came out in 2005. While that was mainly set in Birmingham and Sutton Coldfield, her forthcoming book, Paper Lanterns, was inspired by finding a cache of love letters written in China by two separate women to the same man.”

And there’ll be a lot more to squeeze into this couple of hours:
“Amongst the artists we’ll be playing from CD is Coventry based Chris Hoskins from her collection of monologues Relatively Speaking, and singing with the superb a’cappella trio Free Harmony. And there’ll be some of the sort of Christmas literary offerings that you’ll only get on Radio Wildfire as we look at office parties with Roz Goddard; Christmas presents with Brendan Hawthorne; and reinterpret a couple of well worn seasonal tales.”

And now I’d better go and sort out which extracts from my books the listeners might like to hear me reading on Monday evening

Friday 20th November UPDATE for my COVER DESIGN CHALLENGE!
(Lots of interesting responses so far - these are sent straight to my email and don’t show up on this site. CLOSING DATE: 31st December)

START of the orignal post from Tuesday 18th Nov
At long last I’ve managed to upload the seven versions of the front cover for Paper Lanterns,thanks to my sister, Jo.(Scroll down to the end of this post to see why!)

Enter this Challenge and you could win one of the FIVE FREE copies of this novel. All you need to do to, is answer this question:
WHICH OF THESE POSSIBLE COVERS DO YOU THINK THE AUTHOR LIKES BEST?

• Read these reviews by two enthusiastic Bookcrossers, Heaven Ali and LyzzyBee

• Scroll down to see the information which I sent to the designer to let him know the kind of thing I wanted ( Ideas for the Designer)

CLICK HERE to see THE ‘THUMBNAIL’ SIZE PICTURES OF THE SEVEN COVERS. (To see slightly larger versions of each individual cover*, click on each one, OR click the small box on the top left where it says, Slide Show.)

• When you have selected the cover, you think I like best, CLICK HERE to tell me your decision (this will be sent direct to my email)

Please write ‘Cover Design’ in the ‘subject’ box.

In the ‘your Message’ box, state the number of the cover you’ve chosen and make any comments - Although I’ve got my favourite, I might need to think again if enough people choose a different version!

(*The text on the cover says:
“Certainties are shattered as past and present inexorably unfold –
a deeply moving and unusual novel”Crysse Morrison, author of Frozen Summer and Sleeping in Sand)

Ideas sent to Designer,(Ian Hughes at Mousemat Design) for the front cover design for Paper Lanterns:

“I’d like it to convey that the overall mood of the book is largely optimistic, in spite of the fact that each of the three main characters have suffered loss and disappointment in their lives. I’d want there to be a hint of darkness/sadness -maybe darker green+ brown, but moving towards much lighter greens and blues.

Because of the book’s title, it could be easy just to plump for some images of paper lanterns, but if possible I’d like something (either abstract or representational) which can also refer back to, or hint at a key event in Ann’s life (aged 15/16) that led to the break-up of the family. The nearby woodland/park , and English trees in general, are quite significant in this particular story line.”

To find out more about my publishing venture, NOVEL PRESS, scroll down to read the previous post, Judging a Cover by its Book

Why I’m grateful to my sister, Jo
I was at my mother’s house in Sussex last weekend, and Jo, who lives on an organic farm in Cornwall, was there at the same time. We don’t see each other very often, so it was lovely to catch up on all our news. We stayed up late on Saturday night and she very patiently showed me how to use to Picasa, a user-friendly photo management site.

Yes, it IS the cover that I’ll be inviting people to judge, with a chance of winning one of five copies of my new novel, Paper Lanterns. (More about this below)

I’ve been learning a huge amount about the nitty gritty of publishing since Novel Press was dreamed into existence by our talented writing group. We met each other on the M.A. Writing course at Nottingham Trent University in the late nineties and a small group of us still meet regularly to critique each other’s ‘Work In Progress’.

I was lucky enough to have my novel,The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, published by Transita. Unfortunately, after bringing out thirty-two novels in under two years, they had to pull back from publishing fiction, and focus on their other business, HowTo Books.

We began to realise that the state of publishing was even more restrictive than when my book was launched four years ago, and after much discussion we decided to retain our own authorial autonomy and start a publishing house, Novel Press. I won’t go into all that just now, because there’s more than enough material for several future posts, and at the moment, I want to focus on my new novel Paper Lanterns – or more precisely, on selecting on the best front cover for it. Click here for a sneak preview, written by Bookcrosser, Lyzzybee.

In her ‘ordinary life’, Liz has started a second career with her new Editing Service. She’s done a brilliant job, copy-editing Paper Lanterns. (more of that in a future post)

‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ is supposed to be the accepted wisdom, but I must admit that if I’m presented with a range of books, cover-side up, it’s the cover that will entice my hand to reach out for it. Certainly, this is only the start: next, I tend to read the information on the back, and then flick through the first few pages, but if I hadn’t picked it up in the first place…

There’s lots more to be said about covers: the way they help to indicate genre is just the start of it. Beyond that, I’d never really given much thought to book covers in general. When Transita sent me the proposed cover for The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society, I loved it (even though the window was the wrong sort), and if I’d been asked to suggest an alternative idea, I wouldn’t have known what to say. When it came out in a large print version in 2008, I wasn’t at all keen on that cover.

When I was in charge of every stage of the process myself (with a little help from my fellow writers at Novel Press) I began to look at the question of the cover in a different light. We’d chosen Mousemat Design, because they’d produced a majority of the Transita covers.

My task was to supply Ian Hughes with enough information about my novel for him to create the perfect cover. A tall order indeed. You can read a short description on My Novel page, but I felt that he would need to know more about what I was hoping for.

Within a very short time, he had emailed me three possible versions and I was delighted to see that he was heading in the right direction. Then followed three further versions, and finally, a seventh.

The Cover Design Challenge for readers is simple:

1) Keep an eye on this website to see when I’ve managed to upload all versions of a possible front cover (or follow me on Twitter or Face Book for updates.)

2) When The Cover Design Challenge is ready to go, all you need to do is to read the extra information that I sent to the designer and will post on my site together with the pictures, and then:
3) Look at all these pictures and answer this simple question:

WHICH OF THESE POSSIBLE COVERS DO YOU THINK THE AUTHOR LIKES BEST?
I’ll be very interested in your comments, and although I’ve got my favourite, I might need to think again if enough people choose a different version.

Each entry will be given a number as they arrive, and five of these will be drawn at random. The lucky winners will be contacted and will be sent a free copy of Paper Lanterns when it is published early in 2010

It was so sad to hear of the death of two more British soldiers in Afghanistan, today of all days, when we are reminded of the deaths of hundreds of thousands of other men and women killed in wars.

There’s nothing new I can add to this topic – the pros and cons of this war or that - the justifications and condemnations. I can only feel immensely grateful that virtually all my friends and family members are in good health, and (as far as any of us can know) are not in present danger - all except one, a fairly recent addition to our extended family, and he is often in my thoughts, particularly today.

The Sunday Times News Review has lain on the kitchen table all day. My eye was caught by the headline ‘ HIS LAST LONELY WALK’ and a picture of a beautiful young man, Olaf Schmid, who died last weekend, attempting to defuse his 65th bomb, on the eve of returning home on leave.

I was resisting the article – I didn’t want to read about that tragedy. I’ve just done so now, with a big lump in my throat. My heart goes out to his wife, Christina – his parents too. My son is one year older than he was.

What a courageous young man. The newspaper article quotes his words, “I go home, and people go,’ How many f****** Taliban have you killed?’ Well, it’s not really about that. It’s more about how many lives I’ve saved, I think.”

I live not far from Cannock Chase, 26 square miles of woodlands and heather-covered hills, a wonderful place for walking. I’d been visiting the Chase for years before I first came across the German Military Cemetery. Attached to the memorial building, there was a small, obviously lived-in, house probably occupied by a caretaker.

It just happened to be on the last day of the last millennium – a time when the whole country –indeed, the whole world – was in a state of excitement, some anticipating all the computers on earth grinding to a halt, with disastrous consequences, and others getting ready for the party of a lifetime. Hemmed all around by dark pine trees and a wire fence, were the final remains of 5,000 German Servicemen from two World Wars. So many young men. Just a small percentage of all the others from those two wars

There was something unbearably poignant about the headstones in their neat rows – each one shared by two names. This is the poem it inspired.

Millennium Eve in the German War Cemetery, Cannock Chase.

They’ll be restless tonight, mutters
Mr McAllister locking the door.
There are no windows in the back wall
of the bungalow. It looks onto
its own courtyard. Better that way
he said when he took the job.

But all explosions are too far away
to stir the random couples underground -
no trace of sleep inside their hollow skulls.
If they could dream they’d be where only time
can measure distances. They’d watch those stars
whose light has not yet reached our skies, burn out.

In both of the talks that I’ve attended recently by writer, R.J. Ellory, I was fascinated to hear the way he describes three categories of novels. I realised that even if I hadn’t classified them so clearly before this, I recognised that this is actually how I view them too:

1: the ‘airport ones’ that you might take on holiday with you, or curl up at home with on a cold wet day. These are escapist entertainment, often following an established formula. They are quickly devoured, enjoyed, and as quickly forgotten. They do ‘what it says on the tin’ and serve a specific purpose. They are ‘give-away’ items that you can pass on to friends or charity shops without a qualm.

2: literary fiction, which is often described as ‘style over content’. These books might sometimes need a bit more thought and effort while you read them, but they will make a long-term impact on the reader, and will often be re-read quite soon, not because their plot has already been forgotten, but in order to savour the beautiful phrases and sentences and admire the sheer skill in the use of the English language. Each subsequent reading is likely to reveal more treasures.

3: a combination of 1 and 2 – beautiful and skilful use of language, but more commercial, with, perhaps, a more immediately accessible and gripping plot. R.J. Ellory aims at being in this category, and it is certainly where I’d have placed his novel, A Quiet Belief in Angels. (the only one I’ve read so far)

I was reminded again of these categories a couple of days ago, when I came across the link to this article on the on-line BookSeller: >“Chick lit offers fully rounded heroines for fully rounded women”. Apparently, >“the latest publishing phenomenon to sweep America, which has just arrived over here, features a new heroine: the young woman who is seriously overweight – and doesn’t care.”

I don’t tend to read Chic Lit myself, but I don’t think that has anything to do with the dress-size of its protagonists. It’s the formulaic plots that don’t hold much interest for me. (Having said that, I used to adore Georgette Heyer’s predictable Regency romances in my younger days, and their heroines were always beautiful, and they always won the dark, sardonic hero in the end.)

Nowadays, I prefer to feel that I’m learning something new from a novel, whichever category it might fall into. I’m currently nearing the end of a very enjoyable novel (on CD) Amenable Women, by Mavis Cheek. One of her themes is the importance (or not) of beauty for a woman, particularly how plain women are perceived in our culture now, and in Tudor times.

I was particularly interested that Mavis Cheek had chosen this as a key theme in her novel, because it also plays a part in my new novel, Paper Lanterns.

There seem to be a few themes in this particular post: categories/genres of novels; possibilities of lots of sub-divisions in each of the three I’ve named – and a whole lot more to say about what people are looking for when they pick up a novel.