AUTHOR GUEST BLOG NUMBER FOURTEEN - Cimorene Ross

The story of an addiction

I admit it, I'm a research junkie. It's always been that way and, once I became a librarian with a whole reference library within reach, it only got worse. I know a lot of people won't agree with me, but when it comes to research I'll always prefer books to the internet; there is so much misleading - and plain wrong - information out there in the ether that it involves too much effort to sort out. Having spent a lot of time chasing ancestors on various genealogical sites, for example, I've come to the conclusion that some people lose all common sense when adding people to their family trees; even with my vague grasp of arithmetic I know that women have to be born before their grandchildren, unlike the owner of one tree I found on 'Ancestry' last week! Still, it amused my family history class - and thank heaven for the printed Yorkshire Parish Registers!

I read a lot of historical detective fiction, which often highlights large gaps in my knowledge; my school's syllabus had some limitations, and therefore anything between the Romans and the death of the first Elizabeth I had to discover for myself. I clearly remember doing this when I first encountered the 'Brother Cadfael' books; I had vaguely heard of Stephen and Matilda but I had no idea why England had been split apart by civil war. Once I had read a couple of books on the subject, however, I returned to Cadfael better able to appreciate the author's knowledge of the period.

Likewise, I discovered the 'Mamur Zapt' series of detective fiction about three books in to the series and, although I was immediately hooked, I realised I didn't know why Britain and France were propping up the Egyptian government. Fortunately I soon found Bimbashi McPherson's letters home and the Chief of Police Russell Pasha's autobiography, and quickly recognised a few storylines which had been reworked into some of the earlier books. Egypt in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries soon became an obsession, and I now own a shelf full of diaries and autobiographies relating to the period.

For some years my fellow Manifold Press author Morgan Cheshire and I were involved in American Civil War re-enactments. During that period, most of the books I collected were ladies' diaries rather than military histories; primary sources are always fascinating, and I found them very useful when preparing talks to accompany demonstrations of ladies' costumes of the period. The audience always enjoyed hearing one particular Louisiana lady's comments about the war, handsome gentlemen and her hatred of quilting - almost as much as they enjoyed trying on the hats and crinolines!

Another collection arose from my book group choosing to focus on travel books set in Central Asia or the Far East. All I could find in the library at the time was an account of a bicycle tour through Siberia - but as a result I could now happily navigate my way around Lake Baikal and into Mongolia, if ever I was given the chance!

I was late in encountering the TV series Numb3rs, and quickly ended up buying all the boxed sets. I'm quite sure though that, even without the show, it would only have been a matter of time before I discovered the American Craftsman movement - I was already buying patchwork fabric in William Morris designs - but those who watched Numb3rs will know that the Eppes family live in a Craftsman house. These houses and bungalows were constructed on a small scale with built-in furniture, much of which either still exists or has been lovingly reproduced. Anyway, I soon had a large pile of lavishly-illustrated books about them and was delighted to discover the Numb3rs house - not in Pasadena, but in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. The last time I had a room redecorated, these books came in very useful for inspiration!

Having written this far, perhaps it's time to acknowledge to myself that I'm not merely a research junkie - I'm actually a book junkie. I've had to be very firm about passing on to the library such things as fantasy novels and American cosy murders, but I still add a lot of books to the shelves and boxes upstairs. I was introduced to LibraryThing online (https://www.librarything.com/) by a fellow ex-librarian and was horrified to discover that my catalogued collection numbers about two thousand books. Some time soon I really must be brave and have another purge!

Recommended reading

The Brother Cadfael books by Ellis Peters http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ellis-Peters/e/B000AP86R4/

The Mamur Zapt mysteries by Michael Pearce http://www.amazon.co.uk/Michael-Pearce/e/B000APQZKE/

Egyptian Service 1902-1946 by Sir Thomas Russell http://www.amazon.co.uk/Egyptian-Service-1902-1946-Thomas-Russell/dp/B0006ASIG2/

Bimbashi McPherson: A Life in Egypt by Joseph McPherson http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bimbashi-McPherson-Egypt-Joseph-McPHERSON/dp/B001PAVBYS/

Brokenburn: The Journal of Kate Stone 1861-1868 by Kate Stone http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brokenburn-1861-1868-Civilization-published-University/dp/B00E320B32/

Through Siberia by Accident: A Small Slice of Autobiography by Dervla Murphy http://www.amazon.co.uk/Through-Siberia-Accident-Small-Autobiography/dp/0719566649/

The Bungalow: America's Arts and Crafts Home by Paul Duchscherer and Douglas Keister http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bungalow-Americas-Arts-Crafts-Home/dp/B000GUJHI0/

Hooray!

Our final prize winner from the Christmas round of giveaways has now come forward and we've re-sent her book. Now we can get on with preparing to launch our two new titles on 1 February, which we're certain are both going to be very popular:

A new Julie Bozza title is always an event.  This time she brings us MITCH REBECKI GETS A LIFE, in which fish-out-of-water Mitch struggles to cope thousands of miles from his native New York in what – for him – is the alien environment of Sydney, Australia …

… and similarly Darryl, the hero of Liam Livings‘s new book ESCAPING FROM HIM, meets a delightful gallery of characters and is pitched headlong into a series of adventures when he finally decides to break free from his controlling older boyfriend and make a new life for himself north of the border in Scotland.

We can't wait ...

New for 2015!

We're entering 2015 with some very exciting plans, and also one or two changes to the way we do things. For a start, you'll notice that our dear old online shop module has ceased to exist and is, in fact, an ex-module! All orders should now be placed through one or other of our distributon partners who are, at present and in strictly alphabetical order, AllRomance, Amazon and Smashwords, with some titles also being available in paperback via CreateSpace. There are two reasons for this change - one is the reduced availability of person-power for filling orders, and the other is the new VAT regulations which are a particular burden for small organisations like ourselves; stepping away from handling our own sales means we can allow someone else to take day-to-day responsibility for that aspect of our business, and that in turn leaves us free to concentrate on producing even more new fiction for you to enjoy.

We must admit, though, that we'll be sorry to lose direct contact with our readers. It's been absolutely the best aspect of the online shop, and we've thoroughly enjoyed meeting you all and chatting in e-mail. Our days will be considerably less interesting in future, without that!

We know some of you have already spotted, too, that we're making some books available free of charge for a limited period. These are already proving popular on AllRomance and Smashwords, and will be introduced to Amazon, too, as soon as we can get that organised. (It's not always straightforward to persuade Amazon that yes, you really do want to give things away for nothing, so unfortunately we'll have to work to their timetable; watch this and other relevant spaces for details!)

The free books are Adam Fitzroy's DEAR MISTER PRESIDENT, Jane Elliot's END OF THE TRAIL, Chris Quinton's FOOL'S ERRAND and Julie Bozza's HOMOSAPIEN, all of which have been consistently popular and have made us a lot of friends. We're sending them out free of charge now in the hopes of introducing new readers to our work, and we hope existing readers will also take this opportunity to try out the work of a different author or catch up on a book they may previously have missed.

New titles

Our two new books for 1 February publication are fascinating stories about men faced with unexpected challenges, and we're very excited about them both!

We're sure you'll agree with us that a new Julie Bozza title is always an event. This time she brings us MITCH REBECKI GETS A LIFE, in which fish-out-of-water Mitch struggles to cope thousands of miles from his native New York in what - for him - is the alien environment of Sydney, Australia ...

... and similarly Darryl, the hero of Liam Livings's new book ESCAPING FROM HIM, meets a delightful gallery of characters and is pitched headlong into a series of adventures when he finally decides to break free from his controlling older boyfriend and make a new life for himself north of the border in Scotland.

The name of Liam Livings may already be familiar, especially to those of you who attend UKMeet. We're delighted to have him joining us as an author - not only of the present book, but also of another which we hope to publish later in the year - and, given the speed and enthusiasm with which he writes, we can't help hoping there may be several more titles coming our way in due course; we'll just have to wait and see! For now, though, this is a very good moment to welcome Liam as a new member of the Manifold Press 'family'.

Happy New Year

New reviews of THIS MEANS WAR and UNDERCOVER BLUES

We may have mentioned this before, but sometimes reviews are like London buses - you can wait ages for one, and then all of a sudden two arrive together! At any rate it would seem that some reviewers have been using their holiday break to catch up on reading assignments, and as a result we are now able to bring you new reviews of two of our books. In the order we received them, therefore... Over at Reviews and Ramblings, the wonderful Elisa (does she ever take a day off, bless her?) has been reading Jane Elliot's THIS MEANS WAR. Her comments are brief but include this gem ...

They are clever but innocent pranks, and in the middle of them, Jasper and Brian enjoy a lot of sex and good friends. There is a moment of climax, no pun intended, just a touch of drama, but truth be told, I didn't need it much, to me the story as it was had already satisfied my needs

... and that last line is exactly the accolade every author strives for!

Meanwhile, at the Prism Book Alliance, we have reviewer Feliz's take on Chris Quinton's most recent title UNDERCOVER BLUES:

All in all, this was a deliciously intricate caper-mystery-spy novel that I most certainly will read again in order to (re)discover and enjoy all the tiny details that made it such an enjoyable whole. Highly recommended.

Moreover, Chris appears to have 'converted' a reviewer who wasn't previously a fan of historical novels - which strikes us as a very notable achievement indeed.

Congratulations to both authors on impressing these reviewers - although we'll quietly admit that we're not remotely surprised to learn of it! - and thank you to the reviewers for their time and their good opinions; isn't this just a brilliant way to end one year and look forward to another?

Merry happy .....

To those of you who celebrate at this time of year - and also to those who don't - our warmest seasonal wishes and thanks for your company and support. Look out for a new giveaway promotion starting on Friday 26 December!

AUTHOR GUEST BLOG NUMBER THIRTEEN - Chris Quinton

We'd like to apologise for dropping the ball a bit on our Author Guest Blogs recently; our author for October had to default due to family circumstances but will hope to have something ready for us early in the New Year, and as if that wasn't bad enough we're now a day late posting Chris Quinton's contribution - which was submitted in plenty of time, and the delay is Totally Our Fault. Sorry, Chris!

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The Garret Syndrome

The image of an artist - painter, poet, writer - shut away in self-imposed isolation to work their creative magic is a rather idealised picture. Yes, it happens to an extent, we all need time and space without distractions. On the other hand, the chance and the need to interact with people who share the same interests can't be overlooked. This probably explains why FaceBook and other social media have risen so quickly. If you're in a home situation where there's no one with whom you can freely discuss plot/character/writing hangups, those wider connections are doubly valuable whether they are online or in the Real World.

Being a writer, having that drive to put down on paper or screen the stories and people populating your head, can result in a logjam of ideas, or that stalling moment when you haven't a clue where you're going next despite having the storyline carefully plotted out. That's when you need the connection with others who understand the writerly mind. Sometimes an email or an online chat will do the trick. Sometimes you need that Real Life meeting with a couple of fellow writers over a drink or two of the beverages of your choice to simply talk writerly things, share ideas and experiences. More often than not you'll come away refreshed and newly inspired, and perhaps with a new slant on the current problem.

The larger get-togethers work as well, whether it's a workshop scenario, a collective book-signing event, or a full-blown conference spread over a weekend. The important thing is that connection, knowing you're among people who have the same interests, shared similar situations, know where you're coming from just as you understand them. And then there's the fact that the people you meet at the various places are welcoming, supportive, always ready to offer a helping hand and a listening ear.

Needless to say, the above remarks refer to *all* genres of writing, but perhaps those of us who write in the GLBTQ spectrum need them more than others.

A few of the publishers run Writers' Workshops, or Authors' Retreats, often over a weekend. In the UK, Manifold Press is having one for its stable of authors next spring, and I'm looking forward for a few days of uninterrupted writing and discussions on plots, characters, and anything else that fires our imaginations at the time.  RJ Scott, of Love Lane Books, is also planning a second Retreat next year.

Larger events happen in the UK, the US and Europe - and probably other countries as well, but below are the ones I know of for certain.

Here in the UK, there's the UK GLBTQ Fiction Meet. http://ukglbtfictionmeet.co.uk/ It's small compared to its American counterparts, with attendance capped at 150 delegates. This means it's possibly more intimate than very large conventions, and, from my experience, it's a great chance to meet and socialise as well as attend panels, invaluable workshops, and have one-to-one chats with your favourite authors and cover artists.

A new venture is the Meet The Authors Booksigning events being organised by Sue Brown. The first one was held this year near Liverpool Street Station in London. It was a runaway success and we all had a blast. That afternoon about twenty authors attended, and many, many readers. There were readings, book-signing and buying, much talking, eating and drinking. The link is to the Facebook page set up by Sue, and next year's event is in the planning stages. https://www.facebook.com/events/478879022255681/

Over the Pond in America, there are two big conferences that I know of; the biggest is the GayRomLit Retreat. It is huge, people, and hosted in a different city each year. http://www.gayromlit.com/. Then there's the smaller RainbowCon, now in its second year and planning for 2015 http://www.rainbowconference.org/

On the other side of the planet is Queermance Australia. Their next extravaganza is 7PM Friday 17th April 2015 – Sunday 19th April 2015. Queermance 2015 is a celebration of GLBT relationships in fiction. It is a chance to catch up with the authors and publishers of GLBT fiction, pick up tips, find opportunities and ask all the questions you always wanted an answer to but didn’t know who can answer them.http://www.queermance.com.au/

Nearer to home in Germany, Marc Fleischauer of the Rainbow Gold Reviews LGBT Blog is busily organising an event in Munich next year - here's what he told me... It will be July 10-12 in Munich. The event hotels will be the Sheraton and Westin Grand Arabellapark. We are very close to signing, but there were some details that we have to figure out. We figured out that the reduced hotel prices for the event are much more expensive than getting them on the website and so we have to figure that out. Everything else is planned. It will be called the Euro Pride Meet and we will include some cultural experiences like going to the Pride Parade in Munich and invite some German publishers interested in acquiring rights of translations to English M/M and LGBT stories. It sounds as if it'll be a wonderful event, so keep your eyes on this link http://rainbowgoldreviews.wordpress.com/

When it comes down to it, the trick is not to feel obliged to be alone, but to choose to be isolated in your writerly garret, knowing that when you need them there's someone ready to be there for you just as you will be ready to be there in turn.

[Edited to correct the maximum capacity of UK Meet, which is actually 150.]