Stephanie Cage - Writer

This week on Book It I'll be reviewing Diane Chamberlain's ' Breaking the Silence .'  I found it particularly interesting that my picking up this book about a troubled family and a child whose response to emotional turbulence is elective mutism coincided with a very interesting discussion at academic romance blog ' Teach Me Tonight ' about speech difficulties in popular fiction (which mentions, in passing, The King's Speech as part of this phenomenon). Up until this point, I hadn't given a lot of thought to speech difficulties as a theme, but once it was mentioned, it seemed to crop up everywhere. First I happened again across a book I'd read a few years ago, ' Overheard in a Dream ' by Torey Hayden, the best-selling American author of a whole series of books on troubled children, including several elective mutes.  Although the novel was a compelling and moving story, it didn't quite seem to me to retain the power and simplicity of h...

Now that, thanks to the ubiquity of the Kindle, e-books are finally coming into their own here in the UK, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favourites.  I'll admit that this is a rather biased list, since it is chosen only from those books which I happen to have read in electronic form, but still... here, in no particular order, are my favourite five e-books.  If you're thinking about taking the plunge into reading e-books by contemporary authors, or you're just looking for something new to read, any of these is a great place to start.  Slightly Foxed, by Jane Lovering A deliciously light, funny read, which I loved even more than her first, 'Reversing over Liberace', because this one happens to involve a heroine who loves books, works in a bookshop, and falls in love with dead poets. Fire and Shadow, by Imogen Howson I ummed and aaahed for some time over which of Imogen Howson's books to include, because I love them all, but ultimately the win...

My lovely publishers, The Wild Rose Press , have some great giveaways for Read an E-Book Week .  I've just downloaded half a dozen to add to my electronic to-read pile.  If your computer/e-reader isn't already groaning under the weight of your wish list, you can access eight fabulous free e-books at: https://digibookscafe.com/index.php?main_page=specials Unfortunately, my book ' Desperate Bid ' isn't among the freebies, but it is only $4.25 at full price.  And if that's too much of a stretch, there's 50% off my two short story collections at Smashwords (full details are in my earlier post ) making them just $0.99 each. So there's an e-book for everyone, whatever your budget.  Happy reading! And thanks to everyone who's shared their experiences of e-books with me this week in honour of Read an E-Book Week.  If you haven't done so yet, feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear your experiences, especially as after years of happily ...

I've posted several times about prizes, and in particular books, I've been lucky enough to win. The most recent book I mentioned winning was The Italian's Blushing Gardener by Christina Hollis - a fresh take on the whole Mills and Boon millionaire thing, with a lovely, reclusive landscape gardener for a heroine, a refreshingly rural setting and of course the requisite sexy hero with dark shadows in his past. Since, then I also got lucky in an online contest for a copy of Sky Purington's Heart of Vesuvius and a $10 ebook voucher - enough to buy several novellas I'd been drooling over for a while. Having reviewed several of the books I won, it struck me the other day that blog readers might be just as interested to know how the heck I do it. Just why do I keep getting lucky where books are concerned? And it generally is books, although in the past I have been lucky enough to win a pair of jeans... oh, and a holiday, in a writing competition. But mostly, I win bo...

Did you know it's ' Read an E-Book Week ' this week? I love e-books, although I don't think they'll ever replace print books. I love to hold real pages in my hands, but my luggage allowance doesn't love carrying a holiday's worth of reading, so I think it's fantastic that I can load dozens of books onto my mini laptop, which I'd be taking with me anyway. It's also a great way to try out new authors as e-books (at least from most specialist digital publishers) are much cheaper than print books. With Sony readers and Kindle readers and the free software ' Kindle for PC ', it's easier than ever to read books electronically, and in honour of 'Read an E-book Week', I'm making two mini story collections available as e-books through Smashwords. They'll be around for some time to come, but if you buy them this week, you can enter the code 'RAE50' and get them at a 50% discount . Click on the links below to view them,...

Have you ever suddenly and unexpectedly found yourself reading a sequence of books on the same theme? I don't mean when you deliberately seek out books on a topic that interests you, but when you pick up a book to read and find yourself thinking, on page 3 or page 30, 'Well, hang on, haven't I been somewhere like this before?' The first time I can remember it happening was with a spate of books about book clubs a few years ago, and all three books had been published at around the same time. This time it was more unexpected, as not all the books are recent, although I suppose the topic is one of perennial interest. It started with Toby Young's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People , which I picked up because the title intrigued me, echoing as it does Dale Carnegie's famous self-help book. I enjoyed the glamorous setting and ironic humour for a few chapters, but soon found myself losing sympathy with the main character (or with the author - it's hard to ...

Today I'm visiting author Kelly Moran at her blog. She has some interesting questions for me about my life and writing, including what it's like being a UK author writing for the US market, and what are some of my favourite books now, and from my childhood. There's also a chance to win a pdf copy of 'Desperate Bid' (you don't need an e-reader to enter, as it can also be viewed on an ordinary PC, so if you're reading this, you'll be able to read the book!). If you enjoy book chat, come and visit with me at http://authorkellymoran.blogspot.com/ And thanks again, Kelly, for inviting me! It's always fun making connections with writers on the other side of the pond!

Thanks to the lovely people at Sine FM and Doncaster Little Theatre , my first ever radio play has been performed and broadcast. It's a fun science fiction space opera, although its origins are in a rather older story. If you missed it when it was first aired last week, you can now listen here - start from the beginning if you want to hear Sheila North (presenter of ' Book It ') interviewing me about writing the play, or jump in at 7 minutes if you just want to hear the play. Thank you again to Sheila, David, the actors and the folks at Sine for all their hard work in bringing my play to life. For a fiction writer, it's an amazing experience hearing your characters take on voices!

Yesterday I came across a link to this excellent article: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/19-tips-for-driving-traffic-to-your-blog/ The timing seemed apt as until recently I hadn't paid attention to my blog statistics, and when I did, I was in for a big surprise. The top two countries of origin for visitors to my blog are, not surprisingly, the UK and US. But the third... I expected Australia. It's an English-speaking country, it's a big place, and I have a number of friends and acquaintances there. But it's way down the list at number eight. Number three is in fact The Netherlands. Why? I have no idea! Less surprising was the fact that February, despite being a short month, scraped in as the month with most blog hits ever. In February I guest posted on Michelle Zurlo 's blog as part of her Valentine's week romance promotion (strategy #8) and was more than usually active in reading and commenting on other blogs (strategy #7). But the biggest change ...