Author: jmacwriter

Short Story Expert at Festival of Chichester Event

Phew!  It’s all over again for another year.  It is nerve-wracking sitting in front of a room full of people, advising them on how to write a good short story, where to send it, how to get it noticed in writing competitions, etc.  And knowing that everyone there has paid good money to listen to me and my fellow writer, Patricia Feinberg Stoner.  But if the feedback comments are anything to go by – perhaps we were only sent the nice ones? – we did well, and people appreciated what we had to say.

Tonight, I heard some lovely news from one of the writers from the Bognor Regis Write Club.  She gave me a big hug and a thank you as one of her stories has been accepted by Yours! Magazine  and will appear in the 25th July edition.  Well done, Marion!

I have spent the afternoon with fellow writers:  Patricia (as above), Angela Petch and Rosemary Noble, as we judged short stories to go into a Christmas book: A Sussex Feast At Christmas, due to be published in October.  We have chosen some excellent stories but had to be quite selective.  Some of the rejected stories deserve a second home – I hope their authors try again somewhere else and have more success than they did with us.

Chichester Ghost Tour strides out in aid of Cancerwise

Latest press release made it into the local press: Links at the bottom to see how they can misspell your name! (LOL)  Here is what I actually sent them: 

 

Cancerwise and Chichester Ghost Tour

Thirty-one people had  a scary Halloween experience on Saturday evening, 27th October.  They attended  a ticketed one-off event to support Cancerwise.    “Ghost Hunters” Julia Macfarlane, Becky Brooke and Caroline Travis  entertained them with light-hearted tales of ghosts and other spooky happenings connected to Chichester’s historic buildings.  New stories have been uncovered in 2018: amongst them  the ghostly goings on still occurring in Prezzo’s and the ghosts  of “Reg” and “Mary” still active  in our high street shops.

Several of the attendees wore fancy dress to really get into the “spirit”.   Julia Macfarlane said:  “I hope people enjoyed themselves.  We are very proud of our city centre, its historic past,  and its resident ghosts!”

Emma Neno who organised the event said: “The event raised a fantastic £197.50 for CancerWise.  We had a brilliant evening and loved all the ghostly stories!   Our thanks go to everyone who came along and especially to Julia, Becky & Caroline for hosting the very successful evening.  I had the idea after reading about the ghost tour during the Festival of Chichester and It proved so popular, we had to turn quite a few people away.”

Anyone who missed out on the walk can organise a private tour by contacting bognorwriters@gmail.com.

Chichester Ghost Tour, the book, is available on Amazon  and in Chichester book shops, as are Julia’s other short story collections.

CancerWise is a registered charity based in Chichester, West Sussex. Our centre in Basin Road has a warm, relaxed and welcoming feel, with staff and volunteers ready to support you the minute you walk through our door.

The charity offers support and information to cancer patients, their families and carers in the West Sussex and East Hampshire area.  The service we offer is one of enablement and empowerment in a caring and compassionate environment.

ancerWise provides a wide range of free services at its drop-in Centre including:

  • complementary therapies
  • counselling
  • art groups
  • open days
  • courses
  • library and information centre
  • regular talks

For more information, please contact enquiries@cancerwise.org.uk or visit www.cancerwise.org.uk.

Press releases on line can be clicked on here:

CHINDI website: https://www.chindi-authors.co.uk/cancerwise-and-chichester-ghost-tour/       and

Chichester Observer website- https://www.chichester.co.uk/whats-on/arts/chichester-ghost-tour-raises-spirits-and-cash-for-cancer-charity-1-8695093

 

Cheap Kindle book for summer reading

Pleased to announce that The Bognor Regis Write Club are offering their first anthology  for only 99p on Kindle from today 25th July to  31st July.  Kick off that summer reading holiday list with this  entertaining anthology.  Find it at: http://amzn.eu/0fgryAE   

 

Our 2nd anthology is also available as paperback and ebook : The View From Here.  Or you can buy my collection of short stories.  Or purchase Chichester Ghost Tour, edited by me, now in its 2nd edition and available from Kim’s Bookshop and Waterstones in Chichester, as well as on Amazon.  Yes, I have been busy.

Short Story shortlisted in Cornish Writing Competition

My story, “Cornwall For A Change” was shortlisted in the Cornish writing competition and will appear on 19th July at 10am at this link: https://dracarya.wordpress.com/2017/07/19/cornish-writing-challenge-meet-runner-up-julia-macfarlane.  Which Is Nice. (to quote The Fast Show)

The winner was my fellow writer from CHINDI, Christopher Joyce.  I can see why, having read the story from him, but how interesting that 2 people from the same group in West Sussex  were picked out.  It is obviously just a sign of the talent in our self-publishing group.  Birds of a feather…..

Chichester Ghost Tour

Chichester Ghost Tour

 

      

York and Edinburgh’s Ghost Walks are famous and an essential part of many people’s weekend visits to these cities.  But where is Chichester’s?  With its Roman history and beautiful old pubs that allegedly used to be   part of a smugglers’ network, where are our ghost stories?

When my fellow authors and I looked into it, there just weren’t enough legends to make a truly entertaining walk.  So, controversially, we made a few up to pad out the existing ones.  Well, ghosts aren’t real anyway, are they?

The “Chichester Ghost Tour” was officially launched as part of Chichester Festival  in 2017 from Hennings Wine Shop.   It was repeated several times during 2017 and  a 2nd edition appeared in 2018, with new ghosts and a new tour, again as part of the Festival of Chichester.

The book itself is a self-guided, tongue-in-cheek, optional pub crawl, version of the tour, with 10 ghost stories based in Chichester and written by local authors in the second half of the book, and already available on Amazon and Kindle. http://amzn.eu/g5nOyKP 

The book has been produced in collaboration with Bognor Regis Write Club and CHINDI (Celebrating and Helping Independent Authors), and compiled and edited by me.

As the back cover of the book says:

“Every city should have a ghost tour.   No long weekend visit to a British city is complete without a visit to a traditional pub and a wander around the city centre.  So Chichester deserves to have all three combined.  And here you have it!  A guide to follow on your own or with your friends which will take you on an (optional) pub crawl as well as pointing out the quirkier bits of our beloved town.  To be honest, we expected more ghost stories associated with the place than we could actually find.  But not to worry, using the full resources of CHINDI and Bognor Regis Write Club, we have managed to pull together enough tales to entertain you for a few hours, while you stroll around, gawping and pointing.   Enjoy and remember to drink responsibly.  Try not to have nightmares, unless you want to, in which case eat cheese for supper and read this book at bedtime.”

If you would like to know more, please email me at bognorwriters@gmail.com.

 

 

More fame

Been very busy with the puppy since early January. Lulu is now 4 months old and gorgeous. I was invited to sit on a panel with 2 union people (Janet Henney & Caroline Fife) and Baroness Angela Smith, Leader of Labour in the House of Lords. I was the business side. It garnered a good bit of local publicity if a disappointingly small audience. If anyone wants to hear me advise them on how to ask for a pay rise, the whole 1 hour workshop is available here: https://soundcloud.com/user-567227795/how-to-ask-for-a-pay-rise-and-get-it. Enjoy!

New Year, New Projects & New Puppy

2017 is going to be busy!  I have finally put together a volume of my short stories: News Of Leon & Other Tales.  It’s out for proofreading and comments from fellow writers.  I am also putting together with fellow writers a ghost tour of Chichester to take place on 21st June as part of the Chichester Festival.  But the biggest  project arrived on 9th January – Lulu, a cockapoo puppy.  What a work-stopper!  But what a cutie!   Photo attached so you too can stop work to say “Aah!”lulusettee