All in one volume...

It can be annoying when you read a series of novels out of sequence. I've done this several times, for various reasons - perhaps because I've been given or bought one book, then realised it isn't actually the beginning of a whole story.

So I was very pleased when my publisher decided to bring out my Dorset trilogy as a one-stop Kindle download, and anyone who wanted to read it would be able to do so in sequence.

The Charton Minster Trilogy tells the story of heiress Rose Courtenay, who reaches her late teens in 1914, just in time for the beginning of the First World War, or Great War, as it was known until it was eclipsed in trauma and tragedy by the next one.

The story takes in the enormous upheavals which rocked society during the war and during the depression which followed - a depression which some historians believe led inexorably to the Second World War.

But this trilogy is not a sociological or political document.  It's the story of one woman and her family, her friends and her country. It shows Rose Courtenay (later Denham) making lots of mistakes and paying dearly for them, but also finding love, having children of her own, and having to watch them make mistakes themselves. Rose learns a lot during her long life, but at a great cost.

These are not gloomy books, however, and I have hopefully shown that whenever something bad happens to any of us it can be lightened and made bearable if we can only find the courage to love and be loved in all sorts of ways. Love between friends, siblings, relations and spouses - all are to be found in the Charton Minster Trilogy.

UK readers: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Charton-Minster-Trilogy-Choc-ebook/dp/B00CS7OD24/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1369338303&sr=1-1&keywords=charton+minster

US readers: http://www.amazon.com/Charton-Minster-Trilogy-Choc-ebook/dp/B00CS7OD24/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1369340038&sr=1-1&keywords=charton+minster+trilogy

Meet the authors - Trisha Ashley and me!

Trisha Ashley and I will be in Bath Waterstones on Saturday 18th May from 12 to 2, and we will be very happy to meet and chat with readers. So, if you're in the district, please pop in and see us?

Trisha will be signing copies of her latest novel Good Husband Material and I'll be doing the same with my romantic comedy The Wedding Diary. Anybody spot a theme there? They're both bright, cheerful stories, so anyone need a pick-up or a beach read?

There will probably be more of Trisha's fabulous novels in the store, so please make time to have a browse. Bath is a lovely city. After the signing, Trisha and I intend to eat some Bath buns and go round the Roman ruins. Probably not at the same time...

BBC Radio Devon

I had a fun time today sitting on the Quay in Exeter chatting to the lovely John Govier of BBC Radio Devon. How could I not warm to a man who gave me a great welcome, a big block of chocolate AND a scone piled with clotted cream and jam?  Oh, and who got me eating it on air, too.

So now, anyone who wants to know if I can talk with my mouth full can find out! I'm chatting to John 2.10 hours into the programme.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0185qvd

Free ebook of The Silver Locket

Everyone likes a freebie, so here's one for you.

My historical novel The Silver Locket is free on the UK and US Amazon sites and various other platforms for a while, so if you're a romance, adventure and/or historical fiction fan, do pop over and download. If you'd like the ebook signed, I can do that for you if you visit http://www.authorgraph.com

Here are the links:

Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-Locket-Choc-ebook/dp/B004D4ZYTQ/ref=sr_1_2?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1367482573&sr=1-2&keywords=silver+locket

Amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Silver-Locket-Choc-ebook/dp/B004D4ZYTQ/ref=pd_sim_kinc_2

Kobo:
http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/The-Silver-Locket/book-gVKq6PYlaEu-4Ry153t-Kw/page1.html?s=4iWPhGmQHEekGVwi2mMaGA&r=1

Happy reading!

The Exeter Novel Prize - could the first winner be you?

Everyone at Creative Writing Matters is very excited today because tomorrow we launch the Exeter Novel Prize. This award carries a first prize of £500 (convertible into any currency, non-UK readers, thanks to Paypal) and five runner-up prizes of £50.

What's more, the first prize is sponsored by lovely Exeter Writers, who are all very enthusiastic about this new West Country venture. The group's website is on this link: www.exeterwriters.org.uk.

We hope people from all over the world will enter the Exeter Novel Prize and that literary agent  Broo Doherty of Wade and Doherty, who will be reading the shortlist of six, will find at least one entry (or even several entries) which will make her think: I can help to turn this writer into a star.

The Creative Writing Matters team - Cathie Hartigan, Sophie Duffy and I - will be hosting a launch party at Exeter Library on Thursday 27 June 2013, in the early evening. We'll confirm times on this blog and on Facebook, Twitter and on the Creative Writing Matters website. So, if you would like to come, please pop in to check updates on this and all the exciting things we have planned. www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk.

It's so hard to make the breakthrough as a debut novelist, and it's perhaps even harder to make a comeback if you've been off the scene for a while.  So we decided to open the competition to both published and yet-to-be-published writers.  Provided you're not already agented or under contract to a commercial publisher, you're very welcome to enter. Sadly, we're not opening the prize to children's writers this time, but every other genre, including YA, is acceptable.

The theme of the launch party will be how to be a winner and we'll open the discussion to everyone.

There will also be cakes, and entry is free, so please join us on 27 June!

Competition to win a copy of my latest paperback - easy!

The Western Morning News is running a competition to win a copy of The Wedding Diary, published in paperback on 7 May.  All you have to do is answer a very easy question and a book could be yours.

What's the name of the heroine?

You'll be able to find out if you click on this link, which also has the contact details for entry.

http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/Win-copy-Margaret-s-wedding-fairytale-novel/story-18754894-detail/story.html#ixzz2R00SXjoj

The closing date is 10 May so you have plenty of time to enter!

The Exeter Novel Prize - be the first to win this brand new competition!

It's often been said that everyone has a novel inside them.

Some cynics love to add that inside them is precisely where it should stay.

Cathie Hartigan, Sophie Duffy and I have decided to test this hypothesis. We have set up a brand new fiction award, The Exeter Novel Prize, which in its inaugural year will be sponsored by Exeter Writers and will offer a cash prize of £500, with five prizes of £50 for runners-up.

You can find the details on this link:

http://www.creativewritingmatters.co.uk/.

Entry will be open to anyone, published or yet-to-be-published, who does not already have a literary agent and is not currently under contract to a publisher. You can choose to write in any genre except for children. YA is likely to be acceptable, but we haven't finalised this aspect of the competition yet. Your novel can be set anywhere and at any time - past, present or future.

Please return to the Creative Writing Matters website for updates, and in the meantime perhaps start writing or polishing up that unpublished novel, ready for entry?

We'll be having a launch event in Exeter in June 2013 to which everyone will be welcome.